The Republican Party aka the Sedition Party is engaged in an ongoing slow-motion insurrection against the U.S. government. The seditious insurrection on January 6, 2021 was not a one-off event.
Now the Sedition Party is threatening political violence, acting out their civil war cosplay fantasies, to intimidate the Department of Justice into not investigating Donald Trump and his co-conspirator Coup Plotters, which undoubtedly includes Republican members of Congress (and state level Republican politicians).
We know for a fact that 147 Republican lawmakers still objected to the election results even after the Capitol attack, carrying out the coup plot and giving aid and comfort to the violent insurrectionists. 18 USC §2383. Rebellion or insurrection:
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
The Hill reports, Republicans warn Justice Department probe of Trump would trigger political war:
Republican lawmakers are warning that any Department of Justice prosecution of former President Trump will turn into a political battle, setting a high bar for Attorney General Merrick Garland to act on an expected criminal referral from the House’s Jan. 6 committee.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol previewed its likely referral to the Justice Department in a court filing made public last week and experts say the evidence assembled by House investigators would provide a strong impetus for prosecutors to act.
But Republican lawmakers and strategists warn that any federal prosecution of Trump will be accused of being politically motivated [this is news?], boost Trump within the GOP and turn into a partisan food fight at a time when President Biden is pivoting to the center and trying to keep his 2020 campaign promise to unify the country.
If you seditious sonsuvbitches want to unify the country, stop your slow-motion insurrection and threats of political violence and civil war, and throw Donald Trump to the law. As George Will recently wrote, Donald Trump looks increasingly like a stray orange hair to be flicked off the nation’s sleeve.
The problem we have is the large number of Republican co-conspirators who were involved in his attempted coup d’etat.
Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) said any criminal referral from the House “would probably have as much political taint on it as you can get.”
“To me it’s clearly politically driven,” he said.
“At least half the country would say it’s all politically motivated,” he said.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said “the Department of Justice has a high bar” to clear before launching an investigation of Trump and raised concerns over the partisan fighting that surrounded the formation of the Jan. 6 committee.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blocked House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) picks to serve on the panel, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Jim Banks (R-Ind.).
She instead tapped Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), two outspoken critics of Trump’s election fraud claims, to participate in the Democratic-led investigation.
“I don’t mind looking into the events but I think that Speaker Pelosi did not do the process justice by the way the members were ultimately seated,” Tillis said. “It’s going to be perceived as political.”
“Everybody is going to perceive the referral as a conviction on one side and they’re going to view it as the continuation of a witch hunt on the other side,” [because it is the only phrase Donald Trump knows] he added. “The bar that the House committee has is far lower than anything that would ultimately result in moving forward with a federal investigation and a conviction.”
WRONG! There is already a substantial body of evidence requiring the DOJ to conduct an investigation. Without the investigation we never even get to consideration of an indictment, let alone the conviction you seem to fear will result.
Republican strategists close to Trump are predicting a battle royale if the Department of Justice moves to indict the former president.” [More threats from Team Trump.]
“I think it could backfire in a way that they have no clue,” said Republican pollster Jim McLaughlin. “I think it’s going to backfire because it just so political and it’s tainted.
“The country wants to move on. Nobody is proud of what happened on Jan. 6 but people are like, ‘With all the problems we have going on in the country right now, this is going to be the focus of the Democrats?’ ”
More political and tainted than this, you asshole?
Never forget, never forgive, hold everyone accountable at law. We are not going to get over it nor move on, no matter how much you seditious insurrectionists in the Republican Party would like to disappear your treason down the memory hole.
Trump fluffer and ball washer Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill Thursday any recommendation to prosecute from the House select committee would lack credibility. [No one has less credibility than Lindsey Graham.]
“I don’t see anything coming out of this committee not tainted by politics,” he said.
The likelihood of a stirring up a major political storm with a federal investigation of Trump could serve as a powerful disincentive for the Justice Department moving forward if it receives a recommendation to prosecute from the Jan. 6 committee.
This would be (1) an act of political cowardice, (2) a violation of his oath of office, and (3) a direct contradiciton of Merrick Garland’s commitment “to holding all Jan. 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law.” “There is no higher priority for us at the Department of Justice.”
A filing by lawyers for the Jan. 6 panel in a California federal court as part of its effort to obtain conservative lawyer and Trump adviser John Eastman’s emails is widely seen as a precursor to a criminal referral to the Justice Department later this year.
The lawyers wrote the committee has “a good-faith basis for concluding that the president and members of his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States” by obstructing the counting of electoral votes during last year’s joint session of Congress.
Senate Democrats, even though they all voted last year to convict Trump on the impeachment charge of inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection, have been careful to avoid the appearance Garland is under political pressure to bring charges. They say the decision is up to Garland alone.
But some Democratic senators privately caution that Garland needs to win any case he brings against Trump. They worry that the former president would seize on an acquittal as complete vindication, much like he did after former special counsel Robert Mueller declined to bring charges after investigating allegations of collusion between Russian officials and the Trump campaign in 2016. [Only because of DOJ policy not to prosecute a sitting president. He specifically testified to Congress that Trump could be indicted for his crimes after leaving office.]
Albert Alschuler, a professor emeritus of law and criminology at the University of Chicago Law School, said the Department of Justice would appear to have a strong case against Trump based on the public evidence of his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“It looks like a quite strong case for criminal prosecution, particularly conspiracy to defraud the United States and maybe obstruction of official proceedings charge,” he said. “I see a lot of comment and some people seem to be saying, ‘Well, it’s so hard because they have to prove that the defendant really was lying by projecting all these false claims, you have to prove that he actually did not believe them himself.’ “
“But it seems to me the evidence is pretty strong,” he added. “Juries infer intent from the circumstances all the time, and they infer a criminal intent beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Alschuler noted that multiple advisers including former Attorney General William Barr told Trump directly that his claims of widespread election fraud were untrue.
Barr discussed his conversations with Trump shortly after the 2020 election in a recent interview with NBC’s Lester Holt.
“I told him that all this stuff was bullshit about election fraud and, you know, it was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was,” Barr recounted. “He started asking me about different theories and I had the answers. I was able to tell him this is wrong because of this … He obviously was getting very angry.”
Alschuler noted that Barr “was one of several people who did that.”
He pointed out that “with conspiracy to defraud what you have to show is knowledge is that what you’re saying is false.”
He said, however, that while the evidence against Trump appears to support a criminal prosecution, Garland may hesitate to pull the trigger because of the likely political backlash. [An act of political cowardice.]
“Garland has said he will follow the evidence wherever it leads. If an overwhelming case is presented he may prosecute but I think he would probably prefer not to. That’s just a guess. Even if it’s a very strong case, I think they’re worried about the fact that we’re talking about prosecuting somebody who has millions and millions of devoted, passionate followers who would see this as a political prosecution and be very angry, possibly violent,” he said.
Trump’s violent mob who believe that they are justifed in using violence to achieve his political ends.
Republicans also warn that any federal prosecution of Trump would likely be answered by congressional investigations of Biden and his son Hunter if Republicans take over the House and possibly the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections.
Note: All 147 Republican lawmakers who still objected to the election results even after the Capitol attack should be prosecuted for carrying out the coup plot and giving aid and comfort to the violent insurrectionists under 18 USC §2383., and disqualified from holding public office.
Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist, said a prosecution “will only make Trump stronger with the GOP primary voters.”
“If your goal is to make sure Donald Trump is the nominee in 2024 for the Republicans, then by all means proceed with this. You’re just going to make him stronger,” he said.
What do you say about a political party which would rally around a man indicted for the high crimes of sedition and insurrection, and a failed coup d’etat? Do not call them patriotic loyal Americans.
Charles P. Pierce nails it:
“I love it when they get all butched up and start throwing out threats and admonitions, especially when it’s in defense of a vulgar talking yam that most of them would like to see blasted off to Neptune at the earliest opportunity. And nobody is a better show at this than Senator Lindsey Graham and his many dancing personalities.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close Trump ally and senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill Thursday any recommendation to prosecute from the House select committee would lack credibility. “I don’t see anything coming out of this committee not tainted by politics,” he said.
The senator is not merely “tainted” by politics at this point. He’s positively whitewashed in politics. But more important, the piece is a classic Republican attempt to get Democrats to start crawfishing like the Union staff officers did when U.S. Grant first came east to take charge. The officers wouldn’t shut up about the genius of Robert E. Lee. Grant shut them up:
Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.
It is past time for the Democratic members of Congress to stop worrying about what the Republicans are going to do. It is past time for the Department of Justice to stop worrying about the possibility they might lose a case, and about the political fallout whether they win or lose. There is a criminal case sitting right there on the ground in front of them. The filing from the committee lays it out fairly convincingly.”
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a39360205/trump-january-6-charge-justice-department/
I remember my Dad, a career Air Force officer telling me how shocked they were when Truman relived MacArthur during the Korean War. Presidents just don’t do such things to a war hero, especially such a prominent one. Then, after evaluating the facts of the matter he and his fellow officers concluded Truman had made the right decision. And he was no Truman fan. Old School Republican through and through.
In the name of justice AG Garland should pointedly ignore the inevitable right wing shrieking and patiently lay out his case, just as Congressional Democrats did when twice impeaching the Vulgar Talking Yam. Televising the January 6 hearings should go a long way towards convincing the public that indicting and then trying the VTY for his many crimes is the right thing to do.