Protectors and Threats to American Democracy
The Judicial System
In the independent American judicial system, which is one of the three pillars upholding our Democracy, twelve impartial jurors must be convinced of a defendant’s criminal behavior beyond a reasonable doubt. The prosecution must establish all the facts of the defendant’s crime beyond a reasonable doubt and must convince both the judge and the impartial jury of one’s peers in a public trial. There are vital evidentiary rules to protect an accused defendant like the protections against self-incrimination, the right to confront and cross examine one’s accusers, exclusions for hearsay evidence, rights to counsel and to bring witnesses for the defense, and bars to coerced, tortured, or otherwise improperly obtained testimony. The essence of the criminal justice trial system is truth finding with ample and extensive protections for criminal defendants.
On January 6, 2021, thousands of people took over the US Capitol to prevent the certification of a US presidential election; they assaulted Capitol police officers; members of Congress and the sitting Vice President had to flee for their lives. Over 1000 criminal defendants have been charged. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/capitol-breach-cases To date, over 600 have been convicted or pleaded guilty, and been sentenced to a range from two years of probation to over 20 years in prison, depending on the severity of their crimes. A few have not yet been caught and are still at large. https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/capitol-violence At least one has fled to Belarus to escape justice for his actions. https://www.npr.org/2022/03/23/1088205226/evan-neumann-jan-6-insurrection-suspect-refugee-belarus-asylum
A grand jury (23 randomly selected citizens) first determines whether there is probable cause (more likely than not) that a defendant has committed a crime. It hears the testimony as presented by the prosecutor in secret before deciding whether it is likely a crime has been committed, and who has done so. The federal or state prosecutor then decides whether and how to proceed on the grand jury’s indictments.
The leadership of the far-right organization, the Proud Boys, was indicted by a federal grand jury for their roles in trying to violently overthrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-proud-boys-and-four-other-members-indicted-federal-court-seditious-conspiracy-and The 12 person jury found beyond a reasonable doubt that four Proud Boys leaders, including the leader Enrique Tarrio, were guilty of seditious conspiracy for their parts in the trying to overthrow the presidential election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power; one of the leaders was found not guilty of seditious conspiracy, but convicted of less serious offences. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/jury-convicts-four-leaders-proud-boys-seditious-conspiracy-related-us-capitol-breach The four Proud Boy leaders were sentenced to prison terms from 17 to 22 years by Judge Kelly (a Trump appointee) of the federal district court. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/former-proud-boys-leader-enrique-tarrio-gets-record-22-years-in-prison-for-jan-6-seditious-conspiracy Then President Trump had asked the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” in the debate leading up to the Presidential Election of 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-extremists-explainer/explainer-president-trump-asked-the-proud-boys-to-stand-by-who-are-they-idUSKBN26L3Q1 Their attorneys pointed at Trump for encouraging their actions on 1/6. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/proud-boys-blame-trump-defendants-prepare-find-fate-sedition-trial-rcna81234
A federal grand jury indicted the leadership of the far-right Oath Keepers organization for their efforts to violently overthrow the Presidential election on January 6. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/leader-oath-keepers-and-10-other-individuals-indicted-federal-court-seditious-conspiracy-and Stewart Rhodes and multiple other leaders of the far right Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy and other offenses in connection with the events of January 6; they were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 3 years to 18 years depending on their levels of culpability. https://apnews.com/article/stewart-rhodes-oath-keepers-seditious-conspiracy-sentencing-b3ed4556a3dec577539c4181639f666c and https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-additional-oath-keepers-sentenced-seditious-conspiracy-related-us-capitol-breach
The Oath Keepers had been hoping, expecting, and encouraging then President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act to authorize their anticipated violent actions to keep him in power. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/08/trump-insurrection-oath-keepers-rhodes-00061055 Trump had weighed using the Insurrection Act to put down civil disturbances in the wake of the killing of George Floyd; right wing conspiracy theorists like Rhodes and others were encouraging him to use it to stay in power after his defeat in the November 2020 election and were preparing for a civil war with Antifa on the streets of the nation’s Capitol. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/stewart-rhodes-insurrection-act-trump/2022/01/23/fa009626-7c47-11ec-bf02-f9e24ccef149_story.html Antifa did not show up on January 6; there was no civil war in the streets of the Capitol, no opposition to the gathered Trump forces other than the Capitol and Metropolitan police; Trump did not invoke the Insurrection Act, yet the Oath Keepers nevertheless stormed the US Capitol to prevent the certification of President Biden.
Many January 6 defendants stated they invaded the Capitol and tried to stop the certification of the Presidential election results because Donald Trump asked them to come to Washington DC, and go to the US Capitol, and fight like hell for him. When the January 6 defendants presented at trial or sentencing their “Trump made me do it” defense, it served them to little or no avail in avoiding their individual culpability for their actions. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/man-who-blamed-trumps-orders-for-attending-the-capitol-insurrection-found-guilty
The House January 6 Committee, consisting of a mix of Democrats and Republicans, conducted a year and a half long investigation of the events of January 6; it identified Trump as the prime mover for his seven pronged efforts to overthrow the fair and accurate results of the Presidential election that culminated in the January 6 insurrection; it made a unanimous referral to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecutions, if deemed warranted. https://www.govinfo.gov/collection/january-6th-committee-final-report?path=/gpo/January%206th%20Committee%20Final%20Report%20and%20Supporting%20Materials%20Collection/Final%20Report/%7B%22pageSize%22%3A%2250%22%2C%22offset%22%3A%220%22%7D
The Department of Justice and Special Counsel Jack Smith investigated Trump for an additional year and then presented its case to a federal grand jury which indicted Trump and six unindicted co-conspirators on four felony charges: conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy against citizen’s voting rights.
https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf
On January 2, 2021, Donald Trump, his chief of staff Mark Meadows and legal allies called Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensberger, and asked him to “find” roughly 12,000 votes so that Trump could “win” the Georgia election; the phone call was recorded. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AW_Bdf_jGaA Trump, Giuilani, and his allies arranged for fake electors in Georgia to prepare and present false documents to Congress that Trump was the winner of the presidential election in Georgia. https://www.axios.com/2023/08/22/georgia-fake-elector-trump
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis convened a special grand jury to investigate and assess what had transpired in the efforts to subvert Georgia’s presidential election. Georgia had conducted its initial full vote count, a full hand recount and then a third recount; all of which confirmed Joe Biden’s victory by about the same margin. https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/07/politics/georgia-recount-recertification-biden/index.html After a yearlong investigation, the Special Grand Jury concluded that Trump and 38 other people had likely broken a wide range of Georgia laws in their efforts to overturn President Biden’s victory in Georgia. https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018a-7542-dd5e-abfe-ffc22e920000 District Attorney Willis and the regular grand jury indicted Trump, Giuilani, and 17 others on criminal charges from racketeering and conspiracy to false statements and writings, from impersonating a public officer to soliciting a public official to violate their oath of office, from forgery to perjury, witness intimidation, voter fraud, and efforts to break into an election computer. https://d3i6fh83elv35t.cloudfront.net/static/2023/08/CRIMINAL-INDICTMENT-Trump-Fulton-County-GA.pdf
Trump’s allies in Congress, such as Congressman Jim Jordan, are trying to intimidate and deter District Attorney Willis from doing her job by among other things threatening to withdraw federal funding for the DA’s office and demanding she produce a wide array of internal communications and investigative files about the serious crimes being charged. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23941397-jim-jordan-letter-to-fani-willis-082423 DA Willis replied that she was doing the job entrusted to her by the voters of Fulton County and that Congress has no jurisdiction over state prosecutorial decisions due to the Constitutional separation of powers and the 10th Amendment’s guarantees of state sovereignty in such matters. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23941366-jim-jordan-letter Georgia State Senator Colton Moore and other Trump allies in the Georgia legislature are trying to remove Willis from office to circumvent Trump’s prosecution and trial and sentencing. They do not have the support of the state’s Republican Governor or the Republican Speaker of the House who have acknowledged Biden’s victory in Georgia and encouraged their colleagues to move on. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/as-trump-and-republicans-target-georgia-da-fani-willis-for-retribution-the-states-governor-opts-out
Chief of Staff Mark Meadows asked to remove his criminal case from the Fulton County state court to federal court and testified that he was just doing his job setting up meetings for the President. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/28/mark-meadows-trump-georgia-testimony-federal-court The federal district court judge found that only one of his allegedly criminal actions fell within his responsibilities as chief of staff and refused to remove the Meadows case to federal court; he found 1) that the Hatch Act prohibits federal officials such as Meadows from being part of political campaigns and Meadows actions in question were all about the President’s political campaign, and 2) these elections are a state responsibility (not the responsibility of the White House or its chief of staff) unless Congress has acted and said otherwise. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23945282-georgia-v-meadows-removal-denial
Two Trump co-defendants, attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, have requested a speedy trial which the state court judge set for October 23. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/06/trump-georgia-election-trial-would-take-4-months-for-all-19-defendants-prosecutor-says.html The state court judge has severed their cases so that Chesebro and Powell will go to trial on October 23, as they have requested, and Donald Trump and the other co-defendants will go to trial at a later date giving them ample time to prepare their defense. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/trump-wont-appear-with-powell-and-chesebro-in-first-georgia-election-case-next-month-judge-rules
The judge has indicated that additional severances may be necessary to preserve defendant’s abilities to present their unique defenses in an orderly, coherent and comprehensible fashion before a jury. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fulton-county-district-attorney-rico-case-trump-trial/ For example, defense counsel for Powell and Chesebro each seek to focus only on their client’s own individual acts and argue they were utterly mundane, while the prosecution points to the connective tissue through the over-riding conspiracy among all 19 defendants to overturn Trump’s election defeat and his imminent removal from power through a series of illegal actions tied to the same common unlawful purpose. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/06/trump-georgia-trial-four-months-00114271