The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
An old aphorism declares that the wheels of justice grind slowly. With respect to the various legal investigations being made into the dealings and finaglings of our former president before, during, and after his term in office, but especially with respect to January 6, 2021, it will no doubt be many months or a few years before Mr. Trump is subpoenaed to appear in a courtroom.
Being the undeniable political partisan I have long since become, I had vainly hoped that some of his legal infractions and/or felonies would be adjudicated before the 2022 federal election next year, thinking it would have a major effect on the outcome. The federal and state prosecutors who are looking into the alleged illegalities of which Mr. Trump is accused want to have airtight cases against him. Therefore the wheels of justice shall probably grind at an exceedingly slow pace; it cannot be otherwise.
Without question the ex-president would reject a bench trial for any crimes he might be accused of committing. As is his right, he would insist on a jury trial, hoping thereby to acquire “a jury of his peers.” But who might be the peers of a former NYC real estate magnate/reality television show host/President of the United States? Runners in Amazon warehouses, immigrant farm workers, used-car salesmen? People such as Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, Lindsay Graham, Ron DeSantis, or Greg Abbott? Or might they more likely be folks like Bernie Madoff or John Gotti? Who are Trump’s peers?
Most prospective jurors would have opinions about Donald Trump which might color their objectivity in his trials. Therefore jury selection itself could become a glacial process.
On the other hand, should Trump be the Republican nominee in 2024, and should he win the presidency once more, and should he be convicted of high crimes or misdemeanors while he is again president, he might pardon himself. There was much discussion of that possibility when he was recently in office. Does the Constitution allow a sitting president to be convicted of any crime? That too was, and is, much discussed.
Besides, if the ex-president were to be judged guilty of anything, would he lose a significant percentage of the remarkably loyal base he has maintained up to this point? Even if he were to be judged guilty before the 2024 election, he might still be on the ballot, and he still might win, thereby inserting a sharp stick into the public’s eye. The man is nothing if not persistent, cunning, resourceful, and irrepressible.
In the meantime, the Biden Justice Department and the prosecutors in the Southern District of the State of New York are hard at work, trying to pin every plausible charge they can prove onto the Shakespearian tragedian of Mar al Lago.
Should they succeed in their attempts to verify that Donald Trump is guilty, how will that affect the Grand Old Party? Will its grandeur be diminished, or in the minds of its most ardent supporters, will it continue to be irrationally enhanced?
Dozens of anti-Trump books have been written over the past 4+ years, and dozens more will no doubt appear. None of them will grease the wheels of justice. So America shall be forced to watch, and wait, and wonder. – September 28, 2021
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.