Protestors storm the US Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Photograph by Andrew Denney
Photograph by Andrew Denney
As loopy is it could appear, President Donald Trump’s Justice Division is at the moment engaged in a large effort to carry felony prices in opposition to former federal prosecutors who investigated and prosecuted the 1,500 defendants who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Dubbed “The Weaponization Working Group,” U.S. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi, Trump’s servile stooge, is dutifully finishing up the president’s order to make use of the facility of the division to prosecute not solely the outstanding individuals on Trump’s enemies record (former President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, New York Lawyer Basic Letitia James, et al.) but additionally the prosecutors Trump claims unlawfully prosecuted the rioters. To Trump, the mob that stormed the Capitol — all of whom Trump pardoned — had been victims of a politically motivated vendetta by Biden’s Justice Division to accuse American patriots who had been harmless of any wrongdoing.
Trump, in his second time period, turned a marketing campaign pledge to punish political enemies right into a guideline of authoritarianism. What started as an inflammatory rallying cry in 2023 — “I am your retribution” — morphed into an overriding campaign by the Justice Division to carry felony prosecutions in opposition to Trump’s perceived foes.
No less than 470 individuals, organizations and establishments have been focused for retribution since Trump took workplace. Trump’s vengeance marketing campaign turned private vendettas and his egomaniacal drive for cultural and political dominance. Trump coordinated his vengeance marketing campaign with the Justice Division, wielding govt energy to punish enemies, corresponding to firing each prosecutor and FBI agent who investigated his conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election; ordering punishments of media organizations seen as hostile; penalizing regulation companies tied to opponents; and sidelining civil servants who questioned his insurance policies. As we all know, the Justice Division has indicted a number of of Trump’s enemies, investigated many others, and introduced a slew of prices in opposition to many others, which federal judges and grand juries have discovered with out benefit.
The investigation of the Capitol revolt concerned over 200 prosecutors, just about all of whom have been focused in on-line assaults by the rioters and their supporters. There have been posts suggesting these prosecutors must be hanged.
Certainly, we’re watching in actual time American historical past being rewritten. Trump’s story that the siege of the Capitol was fabricated is being overtly endorsed not solely by the rioters and thousands and thousands of conspiracy theorists however by the Justice Division itself. As insane because it sounds, members of the mob that attacked the Capitol at the moment are encouraging and advising officers within the Justice Division as to who must be investigated and prosecuted. One of many defendants who Trump pardoned, Christopher Quaglin, is reported to have met with the Justice Division’s “weaponization” officers.
Quaglin was convicted of 12 felonies for assaulting the Capitol, attacking a police officer by grabbing him by the neck, seizing a police officer’s defend and utilizing it to strike different officers, pepper-spraying one other officer, and shouting “traitors” and repeatedly yelling for a “civil war.” Earlier than January sixth he poured 100 gallons of paint throughout a Black Lives Matter mural. Quaglin claims he was entrapped and is in search of $150 million for violations of his civil rights. Quaglin is now serving to the division cost the prosecutors who prosecuted him.
One other defendant, Jared Clever, a former FBI agent turned insurrectionist, met with the Justice Division’s weaponization group a number of instances and likewise helped draft a report re-examining the revolt. Clever was charged with urging his followers to “kill” law enforcement officials throughout the Capitol seige. He claims that the DC police had been responsible of “police brutality” in opposition to the rioters.
One other January sixth defendant, Troy Smocks, has a prolonged felony historical past. He was convicted of constructing threats on social media urging his followers to “hunt these cowards down like Traitors they are.” Smocks reportedly helps Major Justice draft an indictment naming prosecutors and judges as potential defendants.
One other ugly characteristic of the January sixth revolt is showcasing Trump’s corruption of the pardon course of. Certainly, other than their convictions, it has been reported that lots of the January sixth defendants, after being pardoned, went on to commit additional severe crimes, together with kidnapping, housebreaking, assault, and making loss of life threats to members of Congress.
It’s an virtually unbelievable story. The rioters who had been convicted of making an attempt to destroy American democracy at the moment are aiding a corrupt Justice Division to get revenge in opposition to the prosecutors who convicted them. We’re witnessing a real story of how the American justice system and the rule of regulation could be damaged, possibly past restore.
Bennett L. Gershman is a distinguished professor on the Elisabeth Haub Faculty of Legislation at Tempo College.
