georgewill

An NBC News poll in April found two-thirds of Republican primary voters care not one whit about the indictments and investigations of former President Donald Trump.

It is difficult to believe the conclusion.

Everyone should read with an open mind the 45-page federal grand jury indictment of Trump on Thursday. Maybe some minds will change.

It explains a deliberate conspiracy, fueled by lies and deception, to overturn the 2020 election Trump lost.

It presents insightful evidence that Trump violated the Constitution’s protection from federal officials disposed to lie and cheat to accomplish wrongful means.

The steadfast support of Trump among so many Republicans explains his purported large lead over other GOP declared presidential candidates six months prior to the primary election season’s start in New Hampshire.

Such fealty is misplaced in light of Trump’s indictment on conspiracy charges involving his clamorous claims President Joe Biden used fraudulent tactics and ineligible voters to defeat Trump in the 2020 election, causing the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the Capitol, among other ramifications.

None of Trump’s fraud claims included supporting evidence, as determined by state and federal courts and ballot recounts in swing states he contended he won in a landslide. His efforts at arm-twisting Republican election officials, governors and legislators also failed.

Yet House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other GOP leaders continue as Trump apologists. They maintain Trump is the victim of a two-tier justice system that refuses to prosecute Democrats. That includes Biden, when vice president, and son Hunter, then a drug addict, over influence peddling and foreign business deals benefiting the Biden family.

Republican control of the House has more than one committee investigating the Bidens. If they come up with credible evidence of unlawful conduct, the Justice Department is duty bound to pursue the matter.

A federal judge recently balked at Hunter’s plea agreement with prosecutors on tax evasion and lying on gun purchase charges, causing further inquiry into the plea deal and its no prison time sentence.

The judge was right. Hunter Biden deserves no more consideration than any other criminal defendant does.

He should be subject to greater scrutiny and consequences because his father is the president. Otherwise, public cynicism of the justice system smolders and grows.

Deliberately plotting to sabotage an election outcome abuses the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution. The latest Trump indictment cannot be excused by partisan comparisons.

The grand jury’s indictment said Trump and all Americans have the right to protest an election; that Trump could falsely claim fraud occurred and that he won. It also said he had a right to challenge the results through lawful means – such as seeking recounts or audits of the popular vote in various states and challenging ballots and procedures in court.

Remember, however, that the courts and state election officials, some of them Republicans, dismissed Trump’s cries of fraud as baseless. They also rejected requests to withhold certification of the results.

Given his rebuff by lawful means, the indictment says, Trump deliberately went beyond the boundaries of constitutional dissent because he knew his lies about election fraud were false and yet he constantly repeated and widely disseminated them so they would “appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

Continued lying about election fraud after exhausting his lawful objections, resulted in these grand jury charges against Trump:

– Conspiracy to defraud the United States by dishonesty, fraud and deceit to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government’s lawful function to collect, count and certify the results of the presidential election, in violation of Title 18, Section 371 of the U.S. Code. Maximum penalty 5 years in prison.

– Conspiracy to corruptly obstruct and impede the Jan. 6 (2021) congressional proceeding to collect count and certify the presidential election results, in violation of Title 18, Section 1512(k) of the U.S. Code. Maximum penalty 20 years in prison.

– Conspiracy against the right to vote and to have one’s vote counted, in violation of Title 18, Section 241 of the U.S. Code. Maximum penalty 10 years in prison.

Evidence supporting the indictment included Trump’s bullying Vice President Mike Pence to decline to certify the Electoral College votes declaring Biden the official winner on Jan. 6. Pence refused on the basis he had no constitutional authority to intervene.

The indictment also referenced Trump’s failed effort to enlist the Justice Department to seek a court injunction to stop the final electoral process, and the scheme to appoint alternative slates of electors in some states to cast votes for Trump instead of Biden even though Biden won the popular vote.

This is not the end of Trump’s 2020 election legal tangle.

A case is expected soon from the Fulton County, Georgia, Grand Jury investigating Trump’s effort to overturn the election results there.

In a recorded phone call, Trump unsuccessfully pressured the Georgia secretary of state, a Republican, to find him 11,780 votes and emerge the winner.

Despite the gathering legal storm at a time Trump’s bidding for a second presidential term, none of the indictments against him are expected to faze his diehard believers. They are hooked on Trump.

A master propagandist, he lives by the psychology that if you stick to lying no matter the facts, people who are inclined to believe you will always believe you. It is his enduring strategy.

It is also a sad, damaging blow to the national value of truth.

Trump indictment link: https://www.justice.gov/storage/US_v_Trump_23_cr_257.pdf

Bill Ketter is senior vice president of news for CNHI, LLC. Reach him at wketter@cnhi.com.