The best thing that could happen for American democracy is a convicting Trump of a felony to disqualify him from running again.
Second best is disbarments and prison time for those who aided and abetted his efforts to steal the 2020 election to deter similar conduct in the future. That includes the rioters and insurrection plotters, the lawyers, the fake electors, and anyone else who committed provable crimes.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, but they’re grinding, and a criminal prosecution of Trump and his helpers is still possible. “The Georgia investigation is widely regarded by experts as the biggest legal threat to Trump,” Huffington Post said here on May 28, 2022. It’s being closely watched.
That investigation, overseen by Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis, seemed to go dark for awhile. But Willis has a team of 10 prosecutors and investigators working on the case, and she only kept quiet until the primaries were over, so as not to influence those elections. Now, the gloves could come off.
Another reason we haven’t heard much about Georgia, beyond the convening of a special grand jury, is because the investigation is much broader than just Trump’s infamous phone call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to pad his vote total.
That, in itself, was a criminal act. As Huffington Post explains, “In his bombshell phone call, there was no demand for a recount — but merely a demand to ‘find’ just enough votes to put him over the top.”
Trump knew it was wrong, and illegal, because he “later lied about the phone call,” and when he did, “Raffensperger released a recording of it.”
But Willis is looking at a broader cast of characters, including those involved in the fake electors scheme, and it now appears she plans to bring racketeering charges against the whole lot. She has the resources; Fulton County isn’t a small county, and Willis doesn’t oversee a small office; her jurisdiction includes Atlanta.
Huffington Post says she has a stable of 50 witnesses, which suggests she’s assembling a big case. Trump, of course, is the godfather of the entire criminal enterprise, so he’s the primary target of the investigation, and it would be surprising if he isn’t among those eventually charged with crimes.
Raffensperger integrity made him a target for Trump’s vengeance. There’s probably no one Trump wanted to take down in this year’s primaries more than him, but he trounced his Trump-backed primary opponent. It’s likely his next role will be as star witness.
It remains to be seen whether Trump will be indicted, much less convicted; in criminal cases, jury verdicts must be unanimous, so it takes only one Trumper on the trial jury to block a guilty verdict. However, we’ve already seen cases where juries with Trump supporters convicted his associates or enablers. Despite Trump’s corrupting influence on the GOP, there still are honest Republicans, including some willing to elevate the rule of law above partisanship.
What’s ultimately on trial is whether America’s democracy is a rickety house of cards or a solid structure that can endure the storm of an undemocratic attempt from within our own society to overthrow it. So far it has; the Trump gang’s efforts to overturn the election failed, and the legitimate winner is in the White House.
But it was a close call, and it’s important to follow up by holding the perpetrators accountable, instead of letting them walk. Otherwise, they’ll be free — and incentivized — to try again.
That’s why it’s important to prosecute the Capitol rioters. That’s why Fani Willis’ investigation matters to the entire country, and Raffensperger’s honesty made him a national hero. These people attacked us.
Willis, Raffensperger, the other witnesses, the investigators, and impartial juries are our defenders. Actually, they may well be our last line of defense, while a potentially more successful coup attempt in 2024 remains a live possibility.
