The 37-count indictment handed up against former President Donald Trump last week offers a test of whether Republican officials and voters in Nassau County, New York State and the nation believe in a founding principle of the United States – the rule of law.
So far the results have not been good.
With few exceptions, Republican leaders in Congress have ignored the overwhelming evidence presented by a grand jury and attacked special counsel Jack Smith. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the FBI, the Justice Department and President Biden.
A small group of prominent Republican leaders have condemned Trump after the indictment and called for the legal process to play out unfettered by politics.
But most others have supported Trump and even threatened retaliation.
“Today is indeed a dark day for the United States of America. It is unconscionable for a president to indict the leading candidate opposing him,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said. “Joe Biden kept classified documents for decades. I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”
Closer to home, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who represents a large portion of New York’s North Country and is the No. 3 ranking Republican in the House, also charged that the indictment was politically motivated.
“The American people are smart and understand this is the epitome of the illegal and unprecedented weaponization of the federal government against Joe Biden’s leading opponent, President Donald J. Trump,” Stefanik said.
This is entirely backward. The investigation was legal, sanctioned by judges appointed by Trump. To not indict would have been the politicization of justice in America.
But two of Long Island’s four Republican congressmen agreed with McCarthy and Stefanik.
“Every American deserves a fair justice system devoid of any political, racial or religious motivations,” Rep. Nick Laota (R-Amityville) said in a statement.
“To the contrary, the Biden Justice Department’s indictment of a former president who is running against Biden, without … an indictment of their boss who stored classified material in his Delaware garage, reeks of political retaliation,” Laota said.
Rep. George Santos (R-Nassau/Queens), who has proclaimed innocence in the face of a 13-count federal indictment for fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and false statements, also stood up for Trump.
“Another indictment of President Donald J. Trump will not gaslight the American People into abandoning the greatest champion of freedom this great young nation has ever known.” Santos tweeted on his campaign account.
Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-Island Park) sidestepped the question with a statement from his spokesman,Matt Capp, that in itself was very revealing.
“While our office continues to monitor the situation, Congressman D’Esposito’s focus remains on delivering meaningful tax relief to New Yorkers and fighting for safe streets,” Capp said.
Any fair-minded reading of the indictment – as special counsel Smith advocated in remarks on Friday – would show how ridiculous and dangerous these statements are.
Trump faces 37 felony counts with 31 pertaining to the willful retention of national defense information, – violations of the Espionage Act. The balance relates to alleged conspiracy, obstruction and false statements.
The threat to this nation’s national security cannot be underestimated.
“The classified documents Trump stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries, United States nuclear programs, potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack,” the indictment said. “The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”
The evidence for this is overwhelming. The proof is provided in interviews with Trump’s own lawyers and staff members as well as emails, text messages and phone recordings.
One would think that if D’Esposito – and every other Republican – was really worried about safe streets, he or she would show some concern about Trump illegally keeping records regarding our nuclear and defense capabilities in cardboard boxes in a ballroom, bathroom and personal office at the Mar-a-Lago Club as the indictment shows.
The indictment also details how Trump proudly and knowingly shared classified information with guests who did not possess security clearances, including sharing a military plan for a possible attack against a foreign country.
And the indictment shows how, given the chance to return the documents, Trump ignored repeated requests by the National Archives and Records Administration for more than a year and then attempted to conceal classified information even while he was required to produce it pursuant to a subpoena.
Trump has since the indictment said he followed the Presidential Records Act perfectly. This is a lie. The first point on the National Archives and Records Administration website explains that the act “establishes public ownership of all presidential records and defines the term presidential records.”
A handful of Republicans have spoken in defense of the investigation and subsequent indictment.
“By all appearances, the Justice Department and special counsel have exercised due care, affording Mr. Trump the time and opportunity to avoid charges that would not generally have been afforded to others,” said U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, the party’s 2012 presidential nominee. “Mr. Trump brought these charges upon himself by not only taking classified documents, but by refusing to simply return them when given numerous opportunities to do so.”
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a GOP presidential candidate for 2024 and a former U.S. attorney, said the details of the federal indictment against Trump are “devastating.”
“The facts that are laid out here are damning in terms of Donald Trump’s conduct, and that’s what I think we as a party should be looking at,” Christie said.
And Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general and loyal lieutenant while in office, strongly dismissed the criticism of the indictment.
“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast. I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning,” Barr said. “This idea of presenting Trump as a victim here – a victim of a witch hunt — is ridiculous.”
But few other Republicans locally or nationally have defended the indictment or even suggested that people allow the case to work its way through the courts.
This was the course recommended by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the top two Democrats in Congress who are both from Brooklyn.
“This indictment must now play out through the legal process, without any outside political or ideological interference,” they said. “We encourage Mr. Trump’s supporters and critics alike to let this case proceed peacefully in court.”
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman called the expected indictment of former President Trump on 34 felony counts related to payments to a porn star a “political and malicious prosecution” – five days before the expected announcement of the charges by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
But Blakeman, who was the Nassau County Republican Party’s liaison to the 2020 Trump presidential campaign, has said nothing following the indictment brought by a grand jury in South Florida.
We understand that Trump, who despite all his legal woes, maintains a hold on a large part of the Republican Party and is the GOP’s clear leader for the 2024 presidential nomination.
And that opposing Trump carries a significant political risk.
But people like Blakeman and D’Esposito are called leaders. So we expect them to lead.
And this is the time that their positive leadership is needed.
The Justice Department weaponization narrative is not only wrong, but it is also dangerous and destabilizing to democracy.
Not pursuing the case against Trump would destroy the principle that no one is above the law. It would also invite Biden and any future president to do whatever they wanted with this country’s state secrets. And, for that matter, break any other law.
This country has already endured an armed attack incited by Trump on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 intended to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Now some Trump supporters are calling for the use of violence to halt justice from being done on the documents case.
For this, Republican leaders and voters will have to answer.