All Hail the Department of Just Us
The indictment of the former president is a body blow to public trust in the American justice system.
In 2012 I was a college sophomore taking a course in African American Religion as part of a diversity requirement. The instructor was Phillip Cole, a middle aged adjunct faculty professor who was a self-professed Marxist, admirer of Fidel Castro, atheist, and tech illiterate. Nonetheless he had a good feel for teaching, and unlike many common anecdotes of late, was always willing to hear dissenting opinions. One of many statements he made was that when it comes to the idea of application of the law, those in power will tip the scales of justice harshly against their opponents while sparing those closest to them. It was justice spelled "Just Us".
One could assume that in the annals of human history most defendants, even the guilty ones, have felt that they are the ones being unjustly persecuted and that criminals of the same or worse caliber as they are get let off scot-free due to prejudice in the justice system. Usually it comes off as the gripe of a self-absorbed, bitter convict rotting in a prison cell and bemoaning life and opportunities lost. But what happens when between 40 and 50% of a country starts to think that way? This is the dilemma Americans find ourselves in. President Donald Trump exited the White House in 2021. Since he went down an escalator in 2015 Trump’s image in the media was changed from joke - to spectacle - to threat to the political order - to social menace - to Public Enemy No. 1. We’ve all been told now for going on eight years that Trump is the worst anything of all time and all universes. In 2017 as the first anniversary of his election was approaching a Facebook initiative sought to have Americans join together on that day to “scream helplessly at the sky”. Tens of thousands RSVP’ed or expressed interest. Little did they know that they actually did have help, a lot of it. From media, Big Tech monopolies, corporate interests, and the entertainment industries.
But the media and activist reaction is not what brought Trump down in 2020, nor what torpedoed much of his agenda when he was president. I was naïve enough to believe that when a president is elected the federal government abides by the will of the people and also dutifully carries out the lawful policies of the president. This is not to say that I agreed that every directive or act that Pres. Trump undertook was constitutional or a good idea. For example, when he launched two bombing operations against Syria before all of the facts materialized regarding chemical attacks, I and many others were ready to despair that he would morph into a George Bush 3.0. It was moments like that, by the way - when the advent of war seemed most apparent, when media figures like MSNBC’s Brian Williams exulted in Trump’s action, praising the “beauty of our weapons”. I think Trump fans are too forgiving on several counts, not least of which was his consent and support of state-level lockdowns during COVID 19 and Operation Warp Speed, which was an exercise in throwing ethical medicine into the trash in the name of a short term emergency.
It became obvious to me after a few months of hearing about “Russian collusion” that all knowledge and conventions about the federal government and the Department of Justice had to be thrown into the dumpster. No, these are not professional, apolitical, stewards of the public trust. In the case of some like FBI agent Peter Strzok it came through in texts when he would make partisan comments about smelly, uneducated, lazy Trump supporters. However there were many other earlier, more subtle indications of what our intelligence community thinks of real Americans. The one that stuck out the most to me was when Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declared under oath “no sir, not wittingly” when questioned by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) about whether the NSA collected private data and communications of American citizens without a warrant. This statement was perjurious, and Clapper’s explanation later that he had not remembered the agency’s monitoring of internet, email, and phone communications through warrantless data-mining requires one to have Patrick Star levels of ignorance in order to be credulous.
The Trump years have not proven that Congress, the intelligence agencies and federal law enforcement are corrupt and conflicted; that had already been done by Clapper and others. However more people came to understand this since he came on the scene. How many legal sagas have to happen where one person is the focus of investigation without success before we can just confirm that he is a target because of who he is and not what he does?
Democrats fought and petitioned throughout the Trump presidency and afterward for the release of Trump’s tax returns in order to investigate whether he was hiding foreign income or other illegal dealings. They were finally revealed in 2022 through the House Ways and Means Committee, and were devoid of any evidence of wrongdoing, instead showing that he may have paid more in taxes under his 2017 tax reform.
The Russian collusion drama in which the CIA, FBI, and other national intelligence agencies knowingly used uncorroborated raw intelligence that turned out to be largely fabricated rumour and innuendo. The supplier of the information, former British MI6 spy Christopher Steele, could not collect on a $1 million reward the FBI offered him to corroborate his allegations.
While Trump did not see criminal charges of any kind over the Russian collusion investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, several associate of his as well as others peripherally involved faced various charges including campaign finance violations and tax evasion (Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort), making false statements to federal agents (Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan). The prosecution of totally unrelated process crimes was a sign that the Mueller investigation was a “fishing expedition” that had been launched to find crimes to match suspects rather than vice versa.
Trump insists on telling his supporters that the FBI and intelligence community are going after him, because he stands in their way of pursuing the average citizen. But Trump is wrong, these agencies already have been doing that throughout their histories. In 2022 they successfully prosecuted and convicted Pam Hemphill, an Idaho grandmother on charges of “demonstrating, picketing, or parading” at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Part of the complaint related to her requesting from Capitol Police to help her in descending the steps safely while she exited the building. Does that sound like a dangerous insurrectionist? She was given a 60 day prison sentence, and legions of other Jan. 6 defendants were either tried and convicted or are still awaiting trial. Liberal leaning publications like The Insider have claimed that the “lagging” prosecutions and long pre-trial detention are “fanning the flames of extremism”. Is it possible that this is by design, with the DOJ seeing the polarization and oppressor vs. oppressed narrative as a means to motivate more blatant violent acts and thereby justify even more draconian measures? Knowing today that the FBI was sending undercover agents to Catholic churches in Richmond, VA in order to snoop on traditionalist worshippers, I feel that the question is apropos.
For those that feel she got what she deserved for supporting the wrong candidate at the wrong place at the wrong time, it bears mentioning that Julian Assange continues to languish in a Britain’s Belmarsh prison pending extradition to the US for his role exposing criminal activity by American intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Assange was never a Trump supporter, and within living memory Democrats hailed him for exposing Bush era abuses of power and failed policies. The millions of aging American liberals mourning the passing of Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg should be aware that the current administration is seeking to shut away the man who was his generational successor.
I remember Julian Assange. You're a gentleman. And a scholar.