When Jack Smith filed a new cause of action, in a DC Court, requesting trial to begin on January 2, 2024. It is clear his intention is to litigate this matter to prevent Donald Trump from being a candidate for President.
Up until this latest stunt, at least the DOJ could argue that they were treating Donald Trump like anyone else and holding him accountable under the law to the same standards as any other citizen. Few believed this, but it was at least an argument. But this latest effort puts their real intentions on full display.
It is important to point out that all the actions allegedly taken by Donald Trump, regarding this new indictment, took place while he was still President of the United States. There is no provision in the constitution that allows an incumbent President of the United States to pursue legal action against his predecessor in office for actions taken by his predecessor while in office. The sole remedy for alleged high crimes and misdemeanors by a President of the United States, while in office, is impeachment. Impeachment charges must be brought by the House and confirmed after trial in the Senate. The Supreme Court has been extremely reluctant to take any action that would interfere with a federal election, but this has now reached the point where they may no longer have any choice.
The House of Representatives, while under Democratic control, tried to impeach Donald Trump on two occasions. The first was based on his phone call with Ukrainian President Zelensky that took place on July 25, 2019. Here is exactly what Trump said:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-call/index.html
“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”
Based on recent developments, only disclosed after Republicans took back control of the House, Donald Trump was pretty darn accurate. Democrats argued that this amounted to election interference, even though at the time Joe Biden was not even an announced candidate for President.
In retrospect, it was the House of Representative, lead by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi that engaged in election interference by a blatant attempt to stop Donald Trump from running for re-election. Incredibly for pointing out the truth about Joe Biden.
The Senate refused to confirm the impeachment. Later, the House filed additional impeachment charges against Donald Trump, regarding alleged actions in connection with January 6th, 2021, with only hours left in his term of office. Again, the Senate refused to confirm the impeachment.
One could and Trump’s attorneys will argue that this latest indictment by Jack Smith involves the same actions that were alleged in the desperate last-minute attempt at impeachment of Donald Trump by the House of Representatives.
it is hard, no impossible, to imagine the Biden DOJ choosing a more obviously inappropriate person to be Special Counsel assigned to investigate Donald Trump. Jack Smith prosecuted the Republican Governor of Virginia, Robert F. McDonnell. He obtained a conviction. This was overturned by a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court. Here is how Politico reported on that decision:
“A unanimous Supreme Court has overturned the corruption convictions of former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, ruling that federal prosecutors relied on a “boundless” definition of the kinds of acts that could lead politicians to face criminal charges.”
If this continues, there will be an immediate demand by outraged Republicans for the House to impeach Joe Biden and remove him from office, making him also ineligible for re-election. Imagine that. A presidential campaign between two candidates, both alleged to be disqualified for office because of blatant corruption. One could describe this a lot of ways, but the peaceful transfer of power required by our constitution is not on the list.
The first primary elections for the 2024 election start in January. The Republican debates start on August 23, 2023. We are rapidly running out of time and out of options. Kicking the can down the proverbial road can’t even be considered.
This reminds me of a quote: “the beatings will continue until morale improves.” Whether they realize it or not, Democrats are trying to win over Republicans by beating them on the head with a war of words. This isn’t working, so in an act of desperation, they have doubled down on insanity. They would be wise to remember than in any war, there are always casualties on both sides. This is too insane to believe, but too believable to safely ignore.
TDM