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In hindsight, Donald Trumps intentions could not appear clearer. During the final months of the 2020 Presidential race, he systematically conducted a disinformation campaign that convinced many of his supporters the election would be stolen by Democrats. After losing, he doubled down on those false claims and repeatedly pressured state election officials, Justice Department prosecutors, federal and state judges, members of Congress, and the Vice-President to overturn the results. After those efforts failed, he appeared at a rally in Washington, D.C., where he urged thousands of his supporters to stop Congress from certifying his defeat. For hours, as they stormed the Capitol, he failed to act.

Those steps, the leaders of the congressional committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol contend, seemingly constitute a crime. But, based on the evidence made public so far, the unprecedented nature of Trumps actionstogether with the vagueness of laws regarding the certification of Presidential elections, legal loopholes, and his manipulation of otherscould allow the former President to escape being criminally charged for his role in events surrounding the attack.

A congressional staffer with knowledge of the committees investigation said that it is ongoing and too early to say what it will yield. The staffer pointed out that Trump has a history of trying to avoid explicitly implicating himself in wrongdoing over the years, as he did in the Oval Office call with Ukraines Presidentwhich, nevertheless, led to his first impeachment. Trump seems to have been very careful never to give an orderto strongly insinuate what should happen rather than giving an order, the staffer told me, comparing Trump with Henry II of England, who famously (perhaps apocryphally) engineered the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury by signalling to subordinates his desire to be free of the religious leader without explicitly ordering it. The staffer, who asked not to be named, invoked a phrase said to have been uttered by the twelfth-century king: Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?

Recent statements by the committee chair, Bennie Thompson, and the vice-chair, Liz Cheneyone of only two Republicans on the panelhave raised expectations that the panel will refer Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. Such a step would increase the political pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to prosecute Trump. In a television interview on Sunday, Thompson said that the panel is examining whether Trump committed a crime: If theres any confidence on the part of our committee that something criminal we believe has occurred, well make the referral. And Cheney, in a speech last month, mentioned a specific charge: Did Donald Trump, through action or inaction, corruptly seek to obstruct or impede Congresss official proceeding to count electoral votes?

Federal prosecutors in Washington have charged dozens of rioters who stormed the Capitol with felony counts of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, which carry a potential sentence of up to twenty years. But legal experts said that convicting Trump of such a charge could be difficult. Ilya Somin, a libertarian legal scholar at George Mason University and a critic of the former President, told me that Trumps lawyers would likely argue that it did not apply to him because he did not enter the Capitol on January 6th. I think it is very clear that it applies to the people who entered the building, Somin said. If Trump did enter the building and lead the attack in person, it would be much easier to convict him of this and other offenses.

The congressional staffer with knowledge of the committees work said that the media had exaggerated Thompson and Cheneys statements. The criminal-referral stuff has gotten blown out of proportion, the staffer cautioned. It has become the shiny new object. (Another shiny new object emerged on Tuesday, when the committee asked the Fox News host Sean Hannity to voluntarily testify about text messages that hed sent which show he had advance knowledge regarding President Trumps and his legal teams planning for January 6th. Hannity warned against Republicans in Congress trying to overturn the results, writing on January 5th that he was very worried about the next 48 hours.) The staffer said that the committee is primarily focussed on creating a definitive history of events on January 6th and recommending laws and reforms that would prevent future attempts to overturn electionsgiving the American people the full picture of what happened and making recommendations to help insure that nothing like January 6th happens again.

Ultimately, the decision about whether to prosecute Trump lies with Garland, a former federal judge who has made restoring public faith in the political neutrality of the Justice Department his core goal. Despite Garlands attempts to divorce the Justice Department from politically charged prosecutions, it is increasingly clear that investigating Trump is becoming the defining issue of his tenure. The continued defiance of Trump and his allies is forcing Garland to make a decision faced by none of his predecessors: whether to prosecute a former President who tried to subvert an election and appears ready to do so again. Democrats are demanding that Garland move more aggressively, with Representative Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, declaring his effort so far weak and feckless, and contending that there are a lot more of the organizers of January 6th that should be arrested by now.

David Laufman, a former senior Justice Department official, said he disagreed with criticism of the Justice Department for not having already charged Trump criminally. Notwithstanding the horrors of January 6th, D.O.J. should not be pursuing criminal investigations or prosecutions against former President Trump or others connected to the attack on the Capitol unless both the facts and the law support doing so under established policy, he said. Its the Department of Justicenot the Department of Retributionand we dont want to see the rule of law eroded just to make us feel good. But Laufman also called for prosecutors to not go easy on Trump, adding that the department shouldnt be shying away from using the full weight of its enforcement authorities against Trump or anyone else simply because doing so could be perceived as politically motivated.

On Wednesday afternoon, Garland gave a speech that was clearly designed to reassure the public and counter critics. The twenty-five-minute address was vintage Garland. He pledged political neutrality and declared that we follow the factsnot an agenda or an assumption. He promised equal justice for all: There cannot be different rules depending on ones political party or affiliation. There cannot be different rules for friends and foes. And he vowed further measures. The actions we have taken thus far will not be our last, he said, adding that the Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under lawwhether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.

In an era when the majority of Republicans falsely believe that the 2020 election was fraudulent and the majority of Democrats think that it was not, Garland will be demonized no matter what action he takes regarding Trump. The Attorney General, based on his speech, continues to believe that he can restore normal ordera Justice Department term for basing decisions on whether to charge defendants strictly on the facts of a case. He continues to believe that the majority of Americans still support the principle that all people should be treated fairly under the law, including Donald Trump. And that the majority will reject political violence and trust the judicial system. At the moment, that belief, for Garland and all Americans, is an enormous political gamble.

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The January 6th Criminal Case Against Donald Trump - The New Yorker

More than 1,000 Americans in positions of public trust acted as accomplices in Donald Trumps attempt to overturn the 2020 election result, participating in the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January or spreading the big lie that the vote count had been rigged.

The startling figure underlines the extent to which Trumps attempt to undermine the foundations of presidential legitimacy has metastasized across the US. Individuals who engaged in arguably the most serious attempt to subvert democracy since the civil war are now inveigling themselves into all levels of government, from Congress and state legislatures down to school boards and other local public bodies.

The finding that 1,011 individuals in the public realm played a role in election subversion around the 2020 presidential race comes from a new pro-democracy initiative that launched on Wednesday.

The Insurrection Index seeks to identify all those who supported Trump in his bid to hold on to power despite losing the election, in the hope that they can be held accountable and prevented from inflicting further damage to the democratic infrastructure of the country.

All of the more than 1,000 people recorded on the index have been invested with the publics trust, having been entrusted with official positions and funded with taxpayer dollars. Many are current or former government employees at federal, state or local levels.

Among them are 213 incumbents in elected office and 29 who are running as candidates for positions of power in upcoming elections. There are also 59 military veterans, 31 current or former law enforcement officials, and seven who sit on local school boards.

When the index goes live on Thursday, it will contain a total of 1,404 records of those who played a role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. In addition to the 1,011 individuals, it lists 393 organizations deemed to have played a part in subverting democracy.

The index is the brainchild of Public Wise, a voting rights group whose mission is to fight for government that reflects the will and the rights of voters. Christina Baal-Owens, the groups executive director, said that the index was conceived as an ongoing campaign designed to keep insurrectionists out of office.

These are folks who silenced the voices of American voters, who took a validly held election and created fraudulent information to try to silence voters. They have no business being near legislation or being able to affect the lives of American people, she said.

The project has been set up with legal advice from Marc Elias, one of the most influential election lawyers in the US who was Hillary Clintons top counsel in the 2016 presidential campaign and who successfully led Joe Bidens resistance to Trumps blitzkrieg of lawsuits contesting the 2020 results. Elias told the Guardian that the index was needed urgently to avoid history repeating itself in 2024 or beyond.

We are one, maybe two elections away from a constitutional crisis over election subversion, he said. If we dont recognize who was behind the attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power, then next time we will be less prepared and it may succeed.

Elias said he saw the index as an example of the kinds of robust action progressives need to take to combat an unprecedented wave of anti-democratic legislation emanating from Republicans in the past 12 months. While Trump had reshaped the right to be laser-focused on elections and winning at all costs, Democrats are spreading their energies thinly between a number of causes of which protecting democracy was just one, he said.

The central theme of the Republican party today is undermining free and fair elections. Under Trump that has become a credential within the party, and we cant let those folks win without a fight because if we do we lose our democracy.

The individuals recorded on the index who are already in public office include the 147 members of Congress who objected to the certification of the 2020 election result. The list also names many elected officials in state legislatures across the nation, including states like Arizona that were ground zero for Trumps efforts to steal the election from Biden.

Jake Hoffman, a lawmaker who represents Arizonas 12th district, wrote to fellow Republicans a day before the Capitol insurrection urging them to pressure then vice-president Mike Pence into blocking Bidens victory. Vice-President Pence has the power to delay congressional certification and seek clarification from state legislatures in contested states as to which slate of electors are proper and accurate, Hoffman wrote, reflecting a theory embraced by Trump that has been thoroughly rebutted.

The week before the insurrection, 17 Arizona state lawmakers wrote to Pence urging him to block the use of any Electors from Arizona despite multiple counts by then establishing that Biden had won the state by more than 10,000 votes. Among the signatories was Mark Finchem, a member of the Arizona House of representatives who was present at Trumps stop the steal rally in Washington on 6 January and who is now vying to become Arizona secretary of state the top election official who oversees the presidential count.

Among the 59 individuals on the index with military backgrounds is Christopher Warnagiris, who in June became the first active-duty member of the armed forces to be charged in relation with the Capitol assault. Despite facing nine counts of assault and violent entry, he has been permitted to continue serving within the training and education section at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

Public Wise has drawn on a number of public information sources to compile the index, working in partnership with other pro-democracy groups who have added specialist skills. The partners include American Oversight, a non-partisan organisation that has used freedom of information laws to extract information from government agencies that exposes participants in the big lie.

The goal is to build up a holistic picture so that nothing can fall through the cracks and no one can slip away, said Austin Evers, the executive director of American Oversight. We ask: who is this ccd on this email? What handle is this on a social media account? If we can connect the dots we can ensure accountability can be brought to bear.

Evers said that the most chilling revelation of the research was that the 6 January insurrection was inspired by an ideology that was supported by people in power. State legislators in Arizona were involved in the run-up to January 6 and after January 6 used their positions to drive the big lie. That feels cancerous the attack on democracy has the backing of political, and even governmental, infrastructure.

One likely charge leveled at the new index by rightwing individuals and groups is that it is a form of cancel culture, designed to silence anyone airing uncomfortable views. Baal-Owens dismisses any such criticism.

Our call to action is about voting, not doxing, she said, pointing out that no private information is included on the index. The call to action is not to show up at this persons house or chase their child to school, but to allow every registered voter to have an educated way to cast their vote.

The groups behind the index hope that it will alert voters to the anti-democratic actions of people running for elected office. The value of such a record, they believe, would increase exponentially were the Republicans to take back control of Congress in this years midterm elections, leading almost certainly to an abrupt halt in congressional investigations into the events of 6 January.

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More than 1,000 US public figures aided Trumps effort to overturn election - The Guardian

Attorney General Merrick Garland has not yet charged any of the alleged ringleaders of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol up to and potentially including former President Donald Trump. This prompted Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., in an appearance Tuesday on CNN, to channel the emotions so many of us are feeling by slamming Garland for his apparent inaction. "I think Merrick Garland has been extremely weak, and I think there should be a lot more of the organizers of Jan. 6 that should be arrested by now, Gallego said. He called Garland feckless and said he has not been helpful in terms of protecting our democracy."

We are a year out from January 6, and the American people need to see real accountability.

In a news conference Wednesday, the eve of the anniversary of the attack, Garland had plenty of opportunity to counter such criticism. But in urging patience and using words that were as thoughtful and measured as he is, Garland didnt go far enough. His lack of urgency is troubling.

It was sincerely heartening to hear Garland say, The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy. That raises the possibility that Trump may be charged. But we are a year out from Jan. 6, and the American people need to see real accountability.

The rest of Garlands speech only raised more questions about why Trump has not been charged. For example, Garland stated that the attack by design interfered with a fundamental element of American democracy: the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to the next. Well, why did that attack happen? Simple, Trumps nonstop lies from Election Day in November 2020 on, including his summoning supporters to Washington on Jan. 6 for a wild time and his urging them on that tragic morning to stop the steal. The Jan. 6 attack simply wouldnt have happened if Trump hadnt engaged in that conduct but had instead accepted the fact that he lost the election.

To those who wonder if Trump and others may have committed crimes, remember this important fact: Trump was lying when he incessantly spoke of massive voter fraud. Trump knew that, especially since his own attorney general, Bill Barr, at the time confirmed as much. The absence of credible evidence of fraud that would win him any state he lost is why Trumps efforts in the courts to overturn the election were rejected even by federal judges he had appointed.

In fact, Trumps allies in several state legislatures, including Pennsylvania and Michigan, are still pushing for audits of the 2020 election. Why? Simple, they still havent found evidence of massive voter fraud that Trump claimed existed. But theyve got to keep demonstrating to their base the idea that massive fraud existed.

That means every action Trump took to remain in power was predicated on a lie. (This, in my opinion, seems like the very definition of acting corruptly under federal criminal law.) Trump lost the election but wanted to stay in power, and he was willing to say or do anything to achieve that.

That willingness to do anything includes Trump's attempting to enlist government officials to help his coup. For example, in December, Trump pressured acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to declare that the presidential election was filled with fraud despite no evidence to back that up and then leave the rest to me. There was also Trumps extreme pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to not certify the 2020 election results despite zero evidence of widespread fraud. His plan was to then ask GOP-controlled state legislatures in swing states to corruptly overturn the election in his favor. One of Trumps closest advisers, Peter Navarro, recently confirmed that plot.

Thats why Laurence Tribe, a university professor emeritus at Harvard Law School along with two former federal prosecutors recently wrote an op-ed for The New York Times urging Garland to criminally investigate Trump and his allies. These legal experts say Trump and his allies may have committed crimes, including impeding an official proceeding, inciting a riot and even seditious conspiracy. This sentiment was echoed this week in an op-ed for MSNBC Daily by former federal prosecutor and current MSNBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner, who noted the crimes Trump could be charged with, such as obstructing official proceedings.

If these actions are not criminal, then nothing is.

As he urged patience Wednesday, Garland said: "I understand that this may not be the answer some are looking for. But we will and we must speak through our work.

But how long can justice be delayed? If Garland waits to charge Trump until the midst of the 2022 midterm campaign or after Trump announces a 2024 run for president, then it will look horribly political, which, ironically, is what Garland is trying to avoid with his Department of Justice.

To be clear, the DOJ has done a remarkable job prosecuting over 700 people who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to prevent President Joe Biden from being certified as the winner of the 2020 election. If Garland, however, ultimately chooses not to prosecute Trump for his attempted coup and his role in the Jan 6 terrorist attack, I believe historians will count it among the key mistakes that ultimately led to the end of the United States as a democratic republic.

That may sound over the top to some. But its not. Our republic hangs in the balance. If Trumps attempted coup and his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack goes unpunished, Trump or others like him could in the future follow that same playbook. And, if law enforcement fails to hold them criminally accountable, they will keep doing so until they finally succeed.

Dean Obeidallah, a lawyer, hosts "The Dean Obeidallah Show" on SiriusXM radio's Progress channel. He has written for The Daily Beast, CNN.com and other publicationsand is a co-creator of the annual New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

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Garland needs to bring Jan. 6 criminal charges against Donald Trump - MSNBC

Donald J. Trump and his allies are scheduling events and raising money for initiatives intended to make the former president a central player in the midterm elections, and possibly to set the stage for another run for the White House.

He and groups allied with him are planning policy summits, more rallies and an elaborate forum next month at his Mar-a-Lago resort for candidates he has endorsed and donors who give as much as $125,000 per person to a pro-Trump super PAC.

The efforts seem intended to reinforce the former presidents grip on the Republican Party and its donors amid questions about whether Mr. Trump will seek the partys nomination again or settle into a role as a kingmaker.

Taken together, the pro-Trump groups form a sort of shadow political party that could help start another presidential campaign and, if that were successful, shape his administration. They include Mr. Trumps own PACs, which amassed more than $100 million by last summer, employ an overlapping roster of former top officials from his administration and have signaled that they intend to embrace policies and candidates supported by Mr. Trump.

The groups have also helped reinforce his properties as a center of Republican power, holding events at his private Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., and at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Trump has welcomed to the clubs a stream of Republicans seeking his political blessing, issuing nearly 100 endorsements to aligned candidates, including challengers to G.O.P. incumbents who voted for Mr. Trumps impeachment or supported the certification of his defeat to President Biden in the 2020 election.

The candidate forum at Mar-a-Lago is being planned for Feb. 23 by a super PAC run by some of Mr. Trumps closest allies called Make America Great Again, Again! Inc., according to an email to donors from Roy W. Bailey, a Texas businessman and Republican fund-raiser.

There will be an all-day candidate forum with back-to-back speeches from the endorsed candidates and familiar faces in the Trump orbit, wrote Mr. Bailey, who was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Trumps campaigns and inaugural committee, then registered to lobby his administration. We want those who attend to leave thinking that it was the best political event they have ever attended, he wrote.

Donors who raise $375,000 will be invited to a private dinner with Mr. Trump.

Mr. Bailey noted that the PACs national finance director was Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is dating Mr. Trumps son Donald Trump Jr., and that its board included Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who advised Mr. Trump during his first impeachment; Richard Grenell, who was Mr. Trumps ambassador to Germany and acting head of national intelligence; and Matthew G. Whitaker, who was acting attorney general.

The forum is for federal candidates endorsed by Mr. Trump. It is not clear how many of them intend to attend. But some, including Harriet Hageman, who is mounting a primary challenge against Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, one of Mr. Trumps harshest Republican critics, and Kelly Tshibaka, who is running in the primary against Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, have been asked to hold the date, according to a person familiar with the planning who was not authorized to discuss it.

Still, Mr. Trumps political activities have generated some grumbling within his circle of supporters.

One donor who had supported Mr. Trumps campaigns said he was leery about donating to Make America Great Again, Again! because of concerns that the money would be wasted. Citing events at the former presidents properties as an example, the donor, who insisted on anonymity to avoid antagonizing Mr. Trump and his allies, said he declined invitations to the February candidate forum and to a $125,000-a-plate fund-raising dinner with Mr. Trump held by the super PAC last month at Mar-a-Lago.

Other donors and party leaders worry about the damage that could be done by Mr. Trumps backing of primary challenges to Republicans who pushed back against his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.

Mr. Trump was impeached twice, including after his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to disrupt the certification of Mr. Bidens victory. Since then, he has been banned from the social media accounts he had wielded so effectively to generate attention and punish enemies without spending any money.

While Mr. Trump has announced the formation of his own media company, including a new social network to reinsert himself into the conversation, it has yet to launch and its financing has come under scrutiny from securities regulators.

Mr. Trumps team also has continued fund-raising voraciously online for various PACs that he directly controls, which had compiled a war chest of more than $100 million last summer, and his team has continued financing campaign-style rallies. He has plans for one in Arizona this month, and more to follow, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Many of Mr. Trumps rallies in 2021 were paired with private donor round tables to raise money for his super PAC. He is planning more rallies in 2022 at locations chosen to help the candidates he has endorsed, according to people familiar with the plans.

Groups allied with him have stepped up their fund-raising in recent months, indicating they intend to spend funds to promote his causes and endorsements.

A nonprofit group called America First Policy Institute, which was started last year to serve as a think tank for Trump world, has the look of a Trump administration in waiting. It raised more than $20 million last year and has 110 employees, including Ms. Bondi, Mr. Whitaker and a number of former Trump cabinet members, such as David Bernhardt (who ran the Interior Department), Rick Perry (Energy Department) and Andrew Wheeler (Environmental Protection Agency).

The group held two events with Mr. Trump at his properties a fund-raising gala at Mar-a-Lago in November, and an event at Bedminster in July with Ms. Bondi to promote a lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump against tech companies that barred or limited his use of their platforms and it is planning twice-a-year policy summits around the country.

The next summit, planned for April in Atlanta, could feature Mr. Trump, according to the groups president, Brooke Rollins, who served as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under Mr. Trump and says she remains in contact with Mr. Trump about her groups efforts.

She said her groups goal was to persuade Americans to support policies like those Mr. Trump pursued as president, and not about getting anyone re-elected, though she said she hoped the groups efforts would shape the debates around the midterms and the 2024 presidential election.

The metric of a successful policy organization is how much those policies are part of the debate, she said.

A linked nonprofit group called America First Works is promoting policies that comport with Mr. Trumps agenda. They include voting rules that make it hard to cheat, according to a fact sheet that seems to echo Mr. Trumps false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, which his allies have been relying on to reshape election laws in a manner that could favor Republicans.

But the raft of new groups has brought with it some of the drama and infighting that marked Mr. Trumps campaigns and presidency.

A previous iteration of the super PAC behind the Mar-a-Lago forum was replaced after one of its founders, the former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, was accused of sexual misconduct by a donor.

That super PAC, which reported $5.6 million in the bank in mid-August, was supplanted by the new PAC, according to a statement announcing the shift in October that said the assets of the old PAC would be transferred to the new one.

The statement called the new group the ONLY Trump-approved super PAC.

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As Midterms and 2024 Loom, Trump Political Operation Revs Up - The New York Times

If Donald Trump runs for president again in 2024, Robert Palmer, a 54-year-old Florida man, will still be in prison for assaulting U.S. Capitol Police officers during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Palmer, who was sentenced to 63 months, has received the longest sentence of the more than 150 defendants who have pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the storming of the U.S. Capitol. He was just one of the hundreds of Trump supporters who rushed law enforcement in an attempt to overturn a free and fair election.

After losing to Democrat Joe Biden in November 2020, Trump spent weeks promoting the lie that the election was stolen from him, culminating in the attack the following January.

Trump incited the riot that left five people dead and dozens of law enforcement officers injured. But while countless people are facing consequences for what they did that day, Trump still hasnt.

Instead, in a darkly ironic twist, Palmer and countless others will watch behind bars should Trump launch his next presidential bid.

The punishments for the insurrection have ranged widely. Texas real estate agent Jenna Ryan, who famously said she definitely wasnt going to jail because she has blond hair and white skin, received 60 days. Paul Hodgkins, a Floridian, was sentenced to eight months in prison for entering the Senate chamber. Hundreds of people have been charged with various crimes, so there are more sentences for defendants on the way. But one year later, its becoming increasingly likely that Trump will not be held accountable.

Ive heard this question from Democrats in my life and seen tweets from large public interest groups: Why isnt Donald Trump in prison?

The answer is simple: People like him rarely end up behind bars.

As his supporters languish, incarcerated, Trumps inner circle will continue plotting to finish destroying whats left of American democracy.

It seems as if the worst thing thats happened to Trump as a result of the insurrection is that hes been banned from Twitter. Although its still early, Trump is still leading among Republicans as a choice for the 2024 presidential nominee. And, more important, according to an AP/NORC poll, only 30% of Republicans believe the U.S. Capitol insurrection was somewhat violent, despite the multitude of videos depicting just how much violence occurred that day. Republican lawmakers are either busy promoting the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, keeping quiet out of a desire to keep their office or, in the case of Rep. Liz Cheney, being ostracized for embracing reality. Are these the conditions under which Trump is supposed to face consequences for his actions?

Heres how the criminal justice system really functions in this country. Marginalized people, such as people of color, poor people, and religious and gender minorities, are more likely to be swept up in the system. Black people are more likely to receive life in prison and death sentences. Those with fewer resources often face harsher punishments due to insufficient counsel. Meanwhile, whiter and wealthier people often receive more lenient sentences if they are charged at all.

Many of the people facing charges in the insurrection are awaiting their day in court at the federal jail in the District of Columbia, known for its harsh conditions. Trump supporters see the insurrectionists as political prisoners, but nonetheless they dont seem too concerned about the conditions under which they are held. Aside from some camera-ready moments from Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), when they inexplicably linked horrific conditions of the jail to critical race theory, conservatives have paid scant attention to their actual state of incarceration. Instead, the GOP machine is working to change voting laws to circumvent that pesky problem of not having enough votes to win an election outright.

During his inauguration speech, President Joe Biden vowed to combat right-wing extremism, music to the ears of the people who had just witnessed the horror of Jan. 6. But, of course, thats easier said than done. Congress, for its part, has been engaged in an investigation of the insurrection, and though many more details have been brought to light, its unlikely to end in the imprisonment of the former president.

The issue at hand is that there isnt a precedent for this type of crisis. Before Trump, every outgoing president graciously accepted a loss and peacefully handed over power because that was simply the norm; its what every president did before him. As a result, were ill-equipped to handle norm-breakers. I guess the Founding Fathers, beloved as they are to many in the U.S., forgot to write into the Constitution what to do when a president incites an insurrection.

Its important to remember that Trump going to prison would be a long way from solving the countrys current problem. A prison sentence may not even stop him from running for president, and there are plenty of Trumps-in-training waiting in the wings who would be more than thrilled to carry the mantle.

The damage he and his ilk wrought on our democracy is here to stay. Its better to embrace the obvious. Donald Trump is not going to prison. But at least he cant tweet.

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OPINION: Donald Trump Is Not Going To Prison - HuffPost