The final act of Donald Trump’s presidency took place on December 19 in the House of Representatives. At the end of their work, the commission of inquiry formed after the January 6, 2021 attack by militia and Trumpist-sympathizers against the Capitol, inspired by the inflammatory and conspiratorial rhetoric of the former businessman, recommended that the Justice Department initiate criminal proceedings against the person they accused as the author of the deed.
The allegations are serious: incitement to insurrection, conspiracy against the state, obstruction of an official process, in this case the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election, and false information. This gravity reflects facts of unprecedented gravity in the history of the United States: a real attempted coup.
These indictments end a period of tonality and anger punctuated by two indictments from the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats but where Republicans will regain a majority by the start of the January school year. With the exception of a handful of elected Conservatives, who have paid for it with their political careers, they have done everything to prevent the work of this commission from becoming cathartic, to the greatest tragedy of American institutions.
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It is now up to Special Attorney Jack Smith, who was appointed by United States Attorney General Merrick Garland on November 18, to decide whether or not to accept all or part of these charges. He is faced with the delicate task of investigating the case of a man who has already declared himself a candidate for the next presidential election and who is determined to denounce yet another too many political maneuvers.
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Jack Smith will dispose of the thousands of documents the commission of inquiry has amassed in the course of its work. Rich material, despite the refusal to testify by close advisers of the man who then occupied the Oval Office, who is also recommended to be indicted.
Two lessons can already be drawn from this tentative epilogue. The first concerns the Republican Party, which is resolutely incapable of opposing, in the name of principles, the one who has never stopped guiding it from below since he became its mentor. If they end up turning their backs on him, it will be driven less by a Democratic reflex and more by the observation, supported by midterm election results, that Donald Trump is letting his camp lose by sticking with denial about Joe Biden’s presidential victory. This blindness is all the more unfortunate given that the defeats of the candidates most mired in the lie of a stolen election show how much of a red line it has become for much of the electorate in the United States.
The second lesson, drawn from the work of the House Inquiry, is indeed a cautionary tale. The most serious threats to American democracy today come from a racist far right whose rhetorical quills Donald Trump has trivialized. The weight of the militias who took the lead in the Jan. 6 attack is testament to this. Unfortunately, this situation is not unique to the United States. The dismantling of a network in Germany that also targets the country’s institutions testifies to the same insurgent temptation that calls for increased vigilance.
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