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26 Months After Jan. 6: DOJ's Failure is Not Its Inaction against Trump, but Against His Underlings [1]

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Date: 2023-03-05

In today’s “Continued DOJ Failure” update, I’ll talk about a critical point that is not understood in most discussions I see on this topic. The problem with DOJ’s law enforcement action (or lack thereof) after January 6th is not that they haven’t yet “gotten” Trump. It’s that they haven’t yet “gotten” any of the entire layer of people in the conspiracy chain between Oath Keepers/Proud Boys leadership, and Trump. That is the key layer of people that must be held accountable: Meadows; Giuliani; Powell; Flynn; Eastman; Stone; Bannon; perhaps that Texas Attorney General; and a bunch of others. They are the people who DO THE COUP. Trump can’t open a bag of peanuts by himself. Without his high-level co-conspirators, nothing happens. And, they are also the people who, as a group, can be effectively deterred, thus preventing future coups.

The DOJ has focused on holding the boots-on-the-ground Capitol rioters accountable, with hundreds of them in jail. That is good. The problem is, those folks, even by the hundreds, are totally replaceable. There will always be more angry idiots.

At the other end of the chain, as for Trump himself: ideally, it is important to hold him accountable, but this should be the priority only after nailing the one- and two-layers-down people, for reasons of deterrence. From the “trial/conviction/throw someone in jail” standpoint, if you bypass the enablers and go straight for the leader, you have accomplished almost zero deterrence. The leader just looks like a political prisoner; and all the enablers are still there, waiting for either the leader to return to the stage, or someone else to seize the leadership mantle. And they will readily serve the next person, as long as they get their slice of the pie.

What if you hold accountable the high-level underlings, but don’t get the leader? Take note that this was precisely the outcome of Watergate. Without being a historian, I’ll assert that the DOJ got a pretty decent number of Nixon’s high-level enablers in what was (considered at the time to be) a cover-up signifying an unacceptable abuse of Presidential power. (It seems quaint compared to some of Trump’s actions—sadly.) But Ford pardoned Nixon, thus, the leader went unaccountable. I ask you to consider that this result, though perhaps dissatisfying, accomplished a lot of deterrence, reminding future high-level Presidential enablers that they ought to be very, very careful about material breach of the law.

This is important because these are people who GET COUP’S DONE. A coup like the one Trump tried to pull off most likely requires large numbers of powerful people to put themselves at risk of criminal consequence. Secretaries of state (for signing off on fraudulent election results, as Trump wanted them to do). Fake electors, for claiming to be duly appointed state electors when they were not. (Are those people ever going to go to jail??) Perhaps a compliant Secretary of Defense, and others in DoD and law enforcement to deliberately weaken the protection of the Capitol on 1/6. For a coup like Trump’s to work, lots of high-level people have to do things that they could quite possibly go to jail for.

But the thing about the high-level enablers is that the vast majority of them can be deterred. They are relatively normal (though powerful and influential) people. They have families. They have social circles, 401k accounts, and houses in nice neighborhoods. They don’t want to lose all that. They can be deterred with threat of criminal consequences. And doing so is critical to stopping the next coup.

The fear I’ve had as the months have gone by since Biden took office, with no action, is not due to Trump continuing to walk free. It is due to his high-level enablers continuing to walk free.

Now:

None of those people are declared Presidential candidates. None.

None need be under the purview of a special counsel. Just to be clear.

We are 26 months in, and the DOJ effort has reached the level of the leadership of the boots-on-the-ground (Rhodes and Tarrios), and at that level, it has totally stalled.

The enablers are there. They sense there is no accountability.

The next attempt to overthrow a Presidential election is coming.

This is not a joke, people. Do you want to hold on to your country?

DOJ: GET GOING!

Biden: The buck stops with you. Protect our democracy! Take action on DOJ stalling NOW!

PS

And we still haven’t caught the bomber.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/5/2156290/-26-Months-After-Jan-6-DOJ-s-Failure-is-Not-Its-Inaction-against-Trump-but-Against-His-Underlings

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