Will Donald Trump Spend the Rest of His Life Behind Bars?

Why Trump’s Referral on Criminal Charges Matters — To America and the World

Image Credit: ABC

By now, you’ve heard — The Jan 6th Committee issued, at last, a criminal referral, to the Justice Department, against Donald Trump. And you’ve heard a chorus of pundits saying things like: it won’t matter, it’s not legally binding, it’s just a formality, so what difference does it make, and so forth.

They’re wrong. The criminal referral of Donald Trump is earth-shaking — for America, and for the world. It is a genuinely historic moment — a turning point, and a warning, both, that will echo through decades to come.

I’ve put the title provocatively for a reason. Will Trump spend the rest of his life behind bars? Maybe, maybe not. That part’s up to Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, of course. And while he’s said to be meticulous and painstaking in his work, the self-evident fact is that he’s slow to act. Still, he gets the job done. So will he indict Trump? I’ll come back to that. First, let’s begin with the charges, and then talk about why this is an historic moment, of immense proportions, and it’s both foolish and wrong to dismiss as humdrum everyday politics.

The Jan 6th Committee referred Trump to the Justice Department on four charges. Criminal charges. Let’s put them in ascending order of gravity, so that it becomes a whole lot clearer why this matters so intensely. One: conspiracy to make a false statement. Not such a big deal, in the larger scale of things — I imagine everyday mid-level crooks face that kind of thing relatively frequently. Two: conspiracy to defraud the United States. Now, suddenly, we’ve already taken a quantum leap: this is the stuff of RICO charges, which, of course, are what bring down kingpins around the world at the very highest levels of organized crime. So just the second most serious charge — out of four — is already at the level of the highest echelons of organized crime, which are some of the most serious charges that exist in America’s justice system.

And it only gets worse — much, much worse for Trump — from there.Number three: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress. This one might not sound like such a Big Deal in itself, but in the context of the other charges, it’s a setup for number four: inciting or assisting an insurrection.And that’s probably the gravest criminal charge there is, full stop. It’s a high crime way, way above the levels of petty, everyday criminality. It’s such a grave charge that, outside the events of Jan 6th, it’s rarely used, if at all.

And against a former President? Now. These are spectacular charges to recommend. Just one of these charges would wreck anyone’s life. Just one of them wrecked the lives of cartels heads and terrorists and so forth. Four such charges? Believe me when I say that you really don’t want the US Government on your case when it comes to matters like these, because once it decides to prosecute you, it doesn’t stop. And there is no institution on this planet even remotely comparable to the power it has. Each of those four charges? You can bet that there are eager young prosecutors at the Justice Department begging Merrick Garland to let them at it — because they’re career-makers, the kind of stuff that’ll launch you into the upper stratosphere and law and politics for good, at once. Now imagine an army of such prosecutors at the Justice Department, shouting, whispering, pleading in Merrick Garland’s ear — please, boss, please — and shudder. Because those guys? They don’t give up, they don’t forget, and they don’t compromise.They are some of the hardest nosed people on the planet. A phalanx of them arrayed against you? LOL, good luck ever having anything remotely resembling a vaguely happy life again. They’ll make it their entire life’s mission to put you behind bars, and if they can’t do that right away, they can make you everything from broke to miserable to an isolated pariah…for good.

So…it’s not a joke. Not remotely something to dismiss, the way that pundits and columnists already are. You see, it’s not just about Merrick Garland. Sure, he calls the shots at the Justice Department, but in that Department, you can bet the farm that this is the single biggest career-making opportunity since Watergate, and it’s on a level or three even beyond that.The internal pressure Garland’s going to be getting to prosecute? Right about now, the poor guy’s phone is buzzing off the hook, as every single prosecutor he employs and leads texts him begging for one of those juicy charges — just one — to take to court immediately. And institutional pressures like that aren’t easy to withstand, even for the most resolute bureaucrat.