L.A. Times Editorial Board Calls for Trump to Be Charged with 'Crimes against U.S'
The Times demanded the Department of Justice ignore the First Amendment
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The Los Angeles Times editorial board has called for former President Donald Trump to face charges of “conspiring to defraud the United States and conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, the electoral vote count” on January 6.
The Times, without any cross-examination, has taken the case presented by the one-sided January 6 Committee at face value.
Many congressional proceedings are met by protests, some of them unruly; Democrats staged a sit-in on the House floor in 2016 to demand gun control, and blocked traffic last week to protest the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dobbs case.
The Times demanded the Department of Justice ignore the First Amendment and single out Trump alone for punishment.
The editorial board argues:
Trump “was told many times, by several close and well-informed advisors, that there was no evidence of voter fraud or ballot irregularities that would have altered the outcome of the election.”
It also ignores the possibility that Trump, nevertheless believed that there was fraud, and many of Trump’s policy successes came precisely because he trusted his instincts.
The Times also ignores the fact that the January 6 Committee has produced no direct evidence of any kind linking Trump to violence at the Capitol.
It writes:
“He invited them to come to Washington for a ‘wild’ demonstration at which he gave an inflammatory speech to a crowd he knew was armed."
"And then directed them to march to the Capitol.”
Few in the crowd, were “armed”; moreover, the Times omits Trump’s admonition “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard."
Most which most of the participants in the rally obeyed.
The Times explains the failure of that second impeachment because by the time he was impeached, “only two weeks remained of his presidency.
This meant Congress didn’t have time to mount a thorough impeachment proceeding.”
That excuse fails to note that Congress did not decline to hold an impeachment trial even after Trump had left office.
It set its own schedule and could easily have conducted a thorough inquiry, but rushed to exploit passions in the wake of the riot for political reasons.
The editorial board acknowledges that prosecuting Trump could produce a political “backlash.”
It ignores the massive, and possibly fatal, damage that prosecuting Trump would do to the perception of impartial justice, which is already in danger.
With Black Lives Matter rioters going free, and the FBI allegedly quashing legitimate complaints about President Joe Biden’s wayward son, Hunter Biden, as “misinformation,” the effect of a political prosecution on the rule of law could be profound.
