One of the signs of the serious demise of a democracy is when losers question electoral processes and voting results and simultaneously use their power while in office to persecute their political opponents.
Such was the case of the government of Ricard Nixon (1969-74). Paranoid by nature, the Republican president had accumulated a long list of political enemies during his career as a congressman, vice president, and then president. He used the power of the office of the presidency to mobilize the FBI, the Justice Department, cabinet members, and other key bureaucrats in his administration to carry out devious measures to attack his opponents. This included, among many illegal actions, sending Cuban-American agents to break into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee in the Watergate Building to gain advantages in the 1972 presidential election campaign.
After a successful bipartisan resolution in favor of Nixon’s impeachment in the House of Representatives, he resigned from office before the Senate could vote to remove him. His vice-presidential successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned Nixon for all past and future crimes in the name of national unity and conciliation.
Trump is now doing what Nixon did. After two unsuccessful impeachment processes, the conviction of 34 felony accounts for falsifying business records, and three other trials against him, which were aborted when he was reelected president, Trump is now out for revenge. Like Nixon, his enemy’s list is long.
As in Brazil, the U.S. judiciary is a separate and equal branch of government, purportedly not subject to executive influence. Moreover, since Watergate, the Attorney General, although appointed by the president and approved after a Senate hearing, is supposed to be independent and free of partisan politics.
However, Trump has an excuse for ignoring this tradition. During the 2016 presidential elections, Republicans promoted the notion of a “deep state,” a supposed vast network of pro-Democratic government bureaucrats with an anti-Trump agenda, allegedly coordinated by Barack Obama. Trump, as paranoid as was Nixon, if not more so, imagined that the FBI and the CIA were out to get him.
His supporters have embraced this idea of a vast conspiracy against their president. And Trump, a truly talented showman, is very comfortable playing the role of victim. Moreover, in an act of supreme confidence, he has no qualms about announcing his intentions. Breaking the tradition established in the aftermath of Watergate scandal that the president should not interfere in decisions of the Justice Department, he has used his social media company to publicly urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to aggressively go after his enemies.
John Bolton has been one of his first victims. Trump’s former national security advisor, Bolton broke with the president and then published a book outlining the president’s foibles. Last month, the FBI invaded his house, searched the premises for hours, and then carted off dozens of boxes of files. It seems that the Justice Department is now preparing to indict Bolton for the possession of classified documents.
The irony, of course, is that this is precisely what Trump was charged with after a search of his Mar-a-Lago residency discovered thousands of classified government documents that the former president had failed to return to the National Archive when requested to do so. Grossly unfamiliar with federal laws and government procedures, the absolutist president believes that anything that he touched during his time is office belongs to him. He insists on this right despite very clear legislation that require that all presidential papers remain under the control of the National Archives and Records administration, a government entity.
According to Bolton’s lawyers, the documents in question are from when he served as George W. Bush’s ambassador to the United Nations from August 2005 to December 2006. Bolton claims that he had authorization to retain copies. Nonetheless, Trump, slighted by Bolton’s “tell-all” book, wants to see his former advisor spend time in jail.
Another victim is James Comey, the former FBI director. Many Democrats claim Comey threw the election in Trump’s favor in 2016 when on the eve of voting, he announced that he was reopening an investigation into presidential candidate Hilary Clinton’s use of an unsecured internet server. Trump later fired Comey after he refused to pledge his unwavering support to the president no matter what. Trump also blames him for backing the investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 presidential elections.
The charges against Comey: making a false statement to Congress and obstructing justice. If convicted the former FBI director could serve up to five years in jail. Currently under indictment, Comey’s lawyers have called on the judge to throw out the case based on the government’s vindictive and selective prosecution, among other defenses. Although it is relatively rare for a judge to rule against these alleged government actions, Comey seems to have a strong case. Trump has already publicly announced Comey’s guilt.
Trump also wrote Attorney General Bondi a message that was inadvertently sent out to 10 million of his followers urging him to prosecute Comey: “We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
The facts in the case don’t seem to favor the Justice Department’s accusations, and the government is having difficulty prosecuting the case. Trump fired the federal prosecutor overseeing the case when he indicated he saw no basis for charges. The president then appointed Lindsey Halligan, one of his former lawyers, to head the office for the Viriginia district, which then issued the indictment. It seems that Halligan, who has no previous legal experience other than dealing with insurance companies, couldn’t get any other lawyer in her office to sign off on the case and take it to court, so she went solo. Not a good sign for the prosecution’s effectiveness.
And the list goes on. Several days ago, Pam Bondi announced that New York State Attorney Leticia James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for business fraud, is also under indictment. Her crime? Alleged bank fraud when taking out a loan to buy a second house. Evidently, Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has used his office to search the records of all of Trump’s enemies to see if there are any irregularities in any real estate transaction they may have been involved in.
Pre-trial information about the case appears to suggest that there was no mal intent or financial irregularities in James’s real estate transaction. That doesn’t seem to have stopped the Justice Department from moving forward with the case. Even if the government doesn’t get a conviction, the defendants under Trump’s vengeance eyes will have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on their legal defense. It’s both a punishing and a silencing mechanism.
But the prosecutions don’t stop there. Trump’s enemy’s list includes Senator Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California, who, when he served in the House of Representatives, led the first impeachment process against Trump. Once again, it seems to be another weak case of alleged false statements that Schiff supposedly made when applying for a mortgage on a second home.
And then there is Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis, waiting in the wings to be charged with some sort of crime. Willis brought a case against Trump for his interfering in the outcome of the 2020 elections in Georgia by asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes,” which would have reversed his loss by a single vote.
Knowing no limit to his rage, Trump has also suggested that Hilary Clinton and Barack Obana be tried for treason.
Nixon never spent time in jail for his crimes. With a 6 to 3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court, which has ruled that Trump has immunity from prosecution for any act committed while conducting official presidential duties, it seems likely that Trump will also be spared from serving time in prison.
With three years and three months remaining in Trump’s term in office, we can predict that dozens if not hundreds of other adversaries will be subjected to political prosecuted at the hands of the Justice Department. Even if many, if not most cases, fail to lead to a conviction, it will take years if not decades to roll back the dangerous precedents Trump has established in his unprecedent and endless grab for more power. He is single handedly destroying the rule of law in the United States.
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