The System Failed: Case Dismissed

The System Failed: Case Dismissed

From one of the best NOLA bloggers, Peter Adrastos Athas

 The son of a bitch got away with it. You and I may not be above the law, but Donald Trump is.

Democracy lost on November 5th. The rule of law lost on November 25th. The two defeats will be linked in the history books as scholars ponder the question of how this happened. How could the world’s oldest democracy elect a convicted felon who tried to stay in office by corrupt means to another term as president?

Jack Smith did what he had to do yesterday. I think it was better to move to dismiss before the Kaiser of Chaos returns to office. It enabled Judge Chutkan to dismiss the case without prejudice, which means that it could theoretically be refiled after Trump leaves. The chances of that are slim and none and slim just petitioned for a pardon for shitting on the constitution.

A more tangible advantage to this timing is that Team Smith will be able to file a report instead of being frog marched out of DOJ by vengeful Trumpers. Merrick Garland will have to approve its release, so we know it won’t happen immediately. The Attorney General should have a new middle name: Merrick Dilatory Garland. His slowness to move against Trump is one of the reasons we’re in this mess.

Jack Smith is a by the book prosecutor. This dismissal is the by the book move. Unfortunately, the Insult Comedian not only hasn’t read the book, he’s ready to burn it as well as the DOJ down. His personal lawyers will be in DOJ leadership positions come January 20th. His backup plan as AG is just as corrupt as Matt Gaetz. Pam Bondi will follow orders. It remains to be seen how far they’ll go but investigations can devastate people financially even if they don’t result in convictions. Just ask Andrew McCabe or Pete Strzok.

There’s a lot of blame for this fiasco to go around. None of it belongs to Jack Smith who moved expeditiously after his appointment. He wanted to throw the book at the Dipshit Insurrectionist-in-Chief, but SCOTUS scuttled that plan with its immunity impunity ruling. It should, however, have heard the case earlier but did not because of a dilatory process.

I might as well rank the culpable in order of importance:

1. Mitch McConnell could have led the charge to bar Trump from office. Instead, he punted to DOJ, which dropped the ball.
2. The Roberts Court slow walked Team Smith’s appeal, which made it impossible for the case to be tried before the election. The immunity impunity ruling would have continued the delay if Trump had lost.
3. Merrick Garland moved fiercely against the rioters, but timidly against Trump. He appointed the right Special Counsel but at least a year too late. In a word; Dilatory.
4. The DOJ memo barring prosecution of a sitting president. It was written to deal with the Agnew case and has caused untold mischief since then.
5. Judge Aileen Cannon who dismissed the purloined papers case before the election. Team Smith has moved to dismiss the appeal of this ruling.
6. Low information voters who bought Trumpist propaganda and gave the crook another chance to disgrace his office.

Talk about a six-pack of venality, corruption, and malakatude.

MAGA Republicans have spent the last 4 years minimizing what happened on January 6, 2021. This effort to rewrite history is about to explode. My friend and Picayune columnist Stephanie Grace nailed it at Muskville:

It happened. We all saw it with our own eyes. The police officers who were brutally assaulted experienced it. Many Republican lawmakers called it what it was in the moment and soon after, on tape for posterity. Mike Pence defended the constitution while he was being hunted.”

That’s the last time I’ll ever quote something from Twitter/X. It’s become a den of iniquitous liars and conspiracy theorists. It’s only fit for the Marge Greene’s of the world.

Americans like to say that no one is above the law. It was always more aspirational than real. There are two justice systems, one for the wealthy and another one for everybody else.

Thanks to SCOTUS the system failed: Donald Trump is above the law.

Repeat after me: The son of a bitch got away with it.