- Conventional wisdom – that oft-cited but rarely correct herald – in Our Nation’s Capital holds that the Department of Justice is zeroing in on Donald J. Trump and his role in the January 6th insurrection.
- The DoJ has caused to be arrested, according to USA Today, “more than 800 people from 48 states” for their role in the calamity.
- Justice is operating in concurrence, but not in lockstep with the House January 6 Committee. As many investigators and lawyers the Committee can bring to bear, the Department of Justice has orders of magnitude more.
- And, DoJ has the power of a grand jury to compel the appearance of witnesses. As we’ve seen over and over again the Congress’ subpoena power is easily brushed aside except (as of this writing) if your name is Steve Bannon.
- As an example, the DoJ apparently brought before a grand jury former VP Mike Pence’s two most senior staffers, chief of staff Marc Short, and cheif legal counsel to the Veep, Greg Jacob to explain (we assume) what pressure Trump sought to bring to bear to have Pence agree to declare the 2020 election still in doubt.
SIDEBAR
- I know you think I make this stuff up – and sometimes I do – but in Zelig fashion, Marc Short and I were senior staffers in the office of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) in 2012.
- Marc and I didn’t discuss our personal politics that I remember. I used to call myself a Trotskyite Republican, Marc was always pretty far to my right.
- Nevertheless, he managed a large and diverse staff with calm and resolve which served Sen. Hutchison, and Texans, very well.
- I no longer refer to myself as any brand of Republican.
END SIDEBAR
- The January 6 Committee has done a brilliant job laying out the case that Trump is likely criminally connected to the riot at the Capitol.
- Whether or not he grabbed for the steering wheel of his SUV is of no moment. That he watched TV and ignored the pleas of staff, friends, and family to call off the rioters; that he refused to say that they would be prosecuted; that when someone said they were calling for the lynching of Mike Pence and Trump said something like “Maybe he deserves it.”
- The only thing missing from that three-hour onslaught was a fiddle for Trump to be playing while democracy burned.
- Attorney General Merrick Garland has put up with day after day of law enforcement geniuses like me demanding to know why he has not thrown a legal lasso over Trump world.
- Turns out, he has.
- As we know, Grand Jury proceedings are secret. The person testifying can talk about what he or she said, but no one else can. I’m not ever certain it is legal to discuss who has been called before a grand jury, although U.S. Attorneys have long proved adept at letting the press know who is testifying and when if it suits their purposes.
- It won’t be long before we hear that the My Pillow guy has been hauled in. Or the Overstocked.com (!) guy. Or the crack legal team of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell. Or the master of ignoring events going on around him, chief of staff Mark Meadows.
- Meadows, until this past April. “was simultaneously registered to vote in three different states – North Carolina, Virginia and South Carolina,” according to the Washington Post.
- It’s more likely Joe Biden actually won North and South Carolina though electoral fraud and abuse than Trump won Wisconsin and Georgia.
- Lock him up!
- In addition to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. House, Trump is under the judicial microscopes in New York and Georgia.
- Maybe this will all come to nothing in terms of seeing Trump in an orange jump suit. But even someone as litigious at Donald Trump the continuing weight of investigations might wreck his dream of being the Republican nominee in 2024.
See you next week.
