Travels With Jack
Criminal intent meets the public domain.
For Special Counsel Jack Smith, the J6 Hearings matter.
The public domain
Trump may ‘think out loud’ publicly that the law doesn’t apply to him, but a sequestered jury will decide if Trump is “above” criminal intent.
Executive Privilege doesn’t apply.
The cause
Thought experiment:
Who’s better for democracy? Cassidy Hutchinson or former AG Bill Barr?Unlike Barr, the uninvited guest under the shadow of perfidy, Hutchinson moves with the constraints of bodyguards.
For Hutchinson, it’s expensive. For Barr, it’s another ‘newsertainment’ sit-down.
Where are the indictments for Barr’s conspiracy to obstruct justice?
Like a suspense novel, America moves her demo-sovereignty from “probable cause” to “beyond a reasonable doubt.” A jury will decide the outcome. A judge will guide the sentencing. More appeals, delays, counter suits of counter suits.
There always are with this client. Justice will be busy moving papers and court dates. America will tarry at the way-cross of unequal justice.
The show
The Presidential Campaign of 2024 is like a wheezing tractor engine, running on diesel, a relic: lots of candidates, lots of revanchism, pettiness and cultish tampering with America’s consciousness. It’s a vaudeville show for the political imagination: a barker here, a fun house with distorted poll numbers there. Little wonder politicians are comfortable roaming fair grounds, sampling cheese fries.
One hardly can make sense of this melee.
When Trump comes to town to pitch his tent, even less so. For the Trump show there is a meaninglessness to locale — ‘everywhere’ is the same, the same story, the same hootin’ and hollerin’, the same curated young and POC crowd video backdrop, the same defecation on the soul of democracy.
In the taking of democracy, a sense of place, of propriety is notably absent. So with the Trump brand of innocence. If Mat-a-Lago’s capture, retention and tchotchke display of government documents is exemplary of passive-aggression, January 6 is the made for cable tele-trauma. The damage was months in the making. Military arms were stored, foot soldiers dispatched — ‘stand back and stand by’ le cri des barricades.
The sting
AG Merrick Garland is beyond politics for he is the survivor of a historic political hit job. Sequestered for eleven months during a SCOTUS partisan showdown, his appointment as AG is the best and worst thing for America, the political beast.
Yes, Justice moves slowly. America’s divisiveness does not. Here is where the tension between the state of America’s politics and legal outrage manifest. No wonder Pence refuses to talk about January 6: his role to enable/deflect attention from an insurrection was assigned, and in a way, his orchestrated role still is.
One questions, is Garland’s role assigned?
Merrick Garland is the AG who appointed Jack Smith, Special Counsel. Garland is not America’s private chaplain for democracy. Garland is in charge of managing America’s tough love affair with democracy.
One questions, did Garland intentionally delay the DOJ investigation of J6?
Time and place matter.
The Evidence
America is reminded that it took House Speaker Nancy Pelosi six months to convene the January 6 Committee, another six months to present the Report, and barely three months to see it buried in a cacophony of Republican partisan drum beating.
Except for criminal referral…
By capturing eleven months of documentation, interview transcripts and Congressional subpoena wranglings, the J6 Committee successfully turned over for criminal referral evidence that can be brought to bear on both the Mar-a-Lago documents case and future indictments charging Trump with fomenting a violent insurrection.
This was the first deadline the Democrats didn’t squander.
So too, is the argument of voir dire… In as much as one is frustrated by the slow pace of justice, the improved opportunity to select jurors who can put their political affections aside is plausible. Questions like do you know of… how do you feel…don’t fade with time.
Memory perverts. Presence doesn’t. Trump’s political advantage is his legal risk.
June 22
