Much for the United States hinges on federal prosecutors indicting a former president for the first time in its history. The growing body of evidence surrounding Donald Trump’s attempts to undermine democracy and incite militant supporters to violently storm Capitol Hill after his election defeat has likely already pushed investigators to the limit.
Now there is also the Republican handling of some top-secret documents, which he probably took home illegally and did not turn over to the national archivists, despite intense efforts and protests to the contrary. Aside from crimes like high treason or inciting riots, which have sparked the imagination of Trump opponents at least since the public hearings on the Capitol takeover, this may seem secondary.
But even the raid to obtain the documents was based, among other things, on the suspicion that the Espionage Act had been violated. It’s not a small thing.
Garland had to assume the worst
Perhaps even more than the federal prosecutor’s office and a grand jury, American society in the medium term depends on the conclusion of the “court of public opinion.” Can Trump’s 74 million voters in November 2020 be persuaded that the laws apply to a man they sent to Washington as a bulldozer and whose distrust of the “deep state” is shared by many citizens?
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Attorney General Garland will not be surprised by Trump’s vehemence as a victim in the wake of the attack. He must have guessed that many Republicans would use the opportunity to undermine the credibility of his agency and even the FBI. In 2022 America, he may even have considered the possibility that armed Trumpists would retaliate against the FBI, as was apparently attempted in Cincinnati.
But nothing helps. Garland is attorney general. He has to take care of law and order – regardless of politics.