Like a puppeteer, former President Donald Trump goes from town to town pulling the strings of discord.
More than a year and a half after walking out the back door of the White House, he continues to refuse defeat and insists on promoting false theories about electoral theft – he is discredited by the judges he appointed, the former officials of his team, his family –, something that does nothing but weaken the institutions and the confidence of the citizens.
Perhaps there is not even 0.01% in the United States who doubts that any day he will again announce his intention to run for president. But there is an issue that hovers over a confronted society.
Should Donald Trump be impeached? This question floats in the air after the detailed and structurally well designed eight hearings of the congressional committee investigating the insurrection of January 6, 2021. It has become evident that the then president premeditatedly sponsored the uprising to stay in power against the will of the citizens.
“An incompetent coup attempt can still be treason, defined as betraying your own country by attempting to overthrow the government by waging war against the state or materially aiding its enemies,” says Elaine Kamarck, senior scholar at the Brookings Institution. and founding president of the Center for Effective Public Management.
Bennie Thompson, the Democratic lawmaker who is leading the investigation, argues that Jan. 6 was the culmination of that coup attempt and not the work of an out-of-control mob. “There has to be accountability before the law. If not, I fear that we will not stop the constant threat to our democracy, ”he adds.
If this were a criminal case, a prosecutor would argue that there is plenty of direct evidence. The witnesses who have testified, almost all of them former advisers and collaborators of the previous executive appointed by Trump, acknowledge that they were repeatedly told that there was no evidence of fraud. They confess that he knew that there were armed people in the protest and, despite everything, he sent them to take over the Capitol.
He spent 187 minutes enjoying the cult of his person on television, without lifting a finger to quell the violence, without making a public appearance or a statement in search of calm, ignoring those who asked him to order the military deployment. Nothing at all in "a supreme violation of his oath and a complete abandonment of his obligation."
Although the committee, which will continue its public work in September, has not yet decided whether to file a criminal petition with the Justice Department, it has laid the groundwork. To the point that there is increasing pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland (equivalent to the Minister of Justice) to act on what has been revealed. Garland remarks that "every person who is criminally responsible will answer for that, nobody is above the law, I cannot say it more clearly."
It is not easy, nor is it clear. David French, a conservative political commentator and critic of Trump, analyzes in The Atlantic that the issue revolves around the first amendment, which establishes freedom of expression and demonstration, unless an illegal, violent action is incited.
During his silence, and at least two hours after the start of the assault on Capitol Hill, to which the president sent his supporters after a speech, and to which he did not join because the secret agents of his entourage prevented him from doing so, Trump launched a couple of tweets in which he said to remain peaceful, although without any condemnation or request to withdraw.
The legal defense of the former president lies in how he can be prosecuted for inciting when he asked for peace. He had previously put Pence in the crosshairs of the insurgents by accusing him of being a "coward" for not giving in to his unconstitutional request. “If Trump wanted a peaceful protest, why did he allow the violence to break out, why was it Pence who had to call in the National Guard?” French stresses.
"For some the decision is easy and based on evidence," says Kamarck. “For others –apostille–, prosecuting a former president, whose followers maintain a cult loyalty, is a decision with enormous consequences. Would a successful indictment and perhaps jail time make Trump a martyr and exacerbate the ugly division he has caused the country? United States, to be or not to be.
