What’s Taking So Long?!?

2/3/22

The January 6th Committee has been at it for about six months, and over that time — particularly in the last couple of weeks — it has uncovered and made public a considerable amount of detail pointing to a concerted effort by President Trump and an inner circle of supporters to overturn the results of the presidential election. Day by day, additional information is being released by the Committee expanding the cast of characters who appear to be knowledgeable about who did what. And while everyone involved is entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence, I’m getting a bit impatient, to say the least.

I believe the Committee has done a remarkable job in its efforts to understand the chronology of events leading up to the January 6th insurrection, but the focus of their investigation is limited. The Committee defines its purpose as follows:

You’ll note that the above text says nothing about holding wrong-doers accountable. My guess is that the Committee wanted to steer clear of making any determinations about criminality to shield itself from the charge of being politically motivated. No such luck. The Committee is perceived that way, anyway, but only by those who stand by Trump, truth be damned. In any case, while those concerns of the Committee may have been understandable, we are well past the point of uncovering criminal activity, and the need to hold perpetrators accountable is rising in priority.

Different states may have different criteria for issuing indictments. For instance, some states require convening grand juries as a prerequisite, others do not. In any case, thus far, only one jurisdiction has moved beyond “investigating” and actually taken concrete actions toward seeing indictments, and that’s Fulton County, Georgia, where Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took Trump’s call, asking him to “find” 11,780 votes. That call happened in January of this year, and it took more than a year for a grand jury to be authorized.

Critically, the role of grand juries is twofold: to investigate and to protect citizens against unfounded criminal prosecutions. Thus, it would appear that in the case of Fulton County, the District Attorney needed the year to reach the required determination that any prospective indictment wouldn’t be “unfounded.” It seems like an overly generous time allowance for me, but better late than never.

The real problem is that too many other cases have yet to show real progress in this direction. In particular, in five states, individuals self-identified as duly constituted electors (fraudulently) and put in place the initial steps in a plan to override the election results of their respective states. That information had been public since November of last year. As of yet, none of the states involved have issued indictments. Just a week or so ago, Michigan finally referred the issue to the Justice Department, but what’s kept that state from acting independently from the Feds? The delay (or failure?) in doing so is unacceptable. Some of the same people who participated in this scheme are now running for office in coming local elections, and they could win! Failure to hold these people accountable — now, before the next elections — allows the potential for these same people to have even greater capacity to thwart our democratic processes and institutions, next time.

What’s taking so long? And what has the Federal Justice Department been doing in the meantime? The danger to our democracy can’t be overstated. Both on a Federal and State level, law enforcement agencies have to step up the pace. I understand the need to get it right and assure that if charges are brought, convictions will result; but in the meantime, Trump is continuing to poison the well with his bogus lies even while transparently acknowledging that he conspired with others to overturn the election. He’s participated in various strategy sessions and, by word and deed, played an explicit role in executing the plan.

At this point, those who reject the idea of Trump and his cohorts being culpable in a criminal endeavor are unlikely to be swayed by additional evidence coming out of the January 6th Committee. Criminal convictions, on the other hand, may be more compelling. In any case, whether Trump’s true believers ever accept Trump’s accountability is irrelevant. Enough is enough, and we have enough to move forward with indictments. To be clear, I’m not joining any crowd chanting “Lock ’em up.” Rather, I’m saying, give them their day in court. Once their verdicts are in, if they’re found guilty, then lock ’em up — for a good, long time, in keeping with the seriousness of their crimes.