gracchusdixit

The most fundamental principle of our system of justice is that anyone who is accused of a crime must be presumed innocent until proved guilty.  Donald J. Trump’s behavior has turned this principle on its head.  Trump began lying to the American people from the day he entered the race to become President of the United States.  After he became president, many hoped that his lies would stop.  They did not.  On the contrary, they escalated, and they escalated at a breathtaking pace.  It is no longer possible to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, to presume that he is innocent until he is proved to be guilty.  Too much is at stake.  For the sake of our republic, we must now presume that Donald Trump is guilty until he is able or willing to prove otherwise.

One reason for this reversal of presumptions, and by far the most important, is that it has become inescapably clear that the Trump administration is engaged in a far-reaching, albeit stunningly incompetent, cover-up.  We do not yet know precisely what is being covered up.  Collusion with the Russians, financial conflicts of interest, outright bribery, or money laundering on behalf of gangsters are but a few of the possibilities.  We do know, however, that the Trump administration is trying to cover up something, and the urgent intensity of its effort suggests that the “something” is consequential, compromising, and perhaps criminal.

Indeed, the cover-up itself just transgressed the boundary separating presidential prerogatives from criminality.  After less than 24 hours of flatly lying about the reasons for the firing of the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Trump administration’s smokescreen simply evaporated. No one outside the White House any longer even pretends to believe that Comey was fired for his mishandling of the Clinton email investigation.  He was fired, because his examination of Russian interference in the 2016 election—as well as the financial entanglements of Trump and his family—was getting too close for comfort.  Trump and his minions have insisted for months that “there’s no there there.”  James Comey obviously thought otherwise.  That is why he had to go.

The termination of James Comey therefore qualifies as an obstruction of justice, a willful interference in a lawful investigation by the most important law enforcement agency in the land.  This means that the President of the United States is guilty of a felony.  It was precisely this crime that brought down Richard Nixon.  It may be the crime that eventually brings down Donald Trump.

If that day comes, Trump will not be the only one to fall.

The Republican Party’s “Plan B” in the event of a Trump catastrophe has always been Mike Pence, a former congressman and governor of Indiana, viewed by Republican legislators as “one of their own” and therefore shielded by, if nothing else, tribal loyalty.

Pence publicly defended Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Flynn, when he got into hot water for cozying up to the Russians.  It was the assertion that Flynn lied to Pence that ultimately got him fired.  Republicans rallied around that claim, insisting that Pence had been an innocent victim.

Putting aside the fact that Mike Pence is an unctuous sycophant whose sanctimonious pronouncements are about as convincing as a sermon by Elmer Gantry, the claim that he was  an “innocent victim” who had been lied to was never credible.  He had been running Trump’s transition team for months.  Flynn was a part of that team.  The very idea that Pence was unaware of Flynn’s cohabitations with the Russians was, and is, preposterous.

Now we know that Pence’s claim to be innocent or unaware is more than preposterous.  It is a lie.  Not only was Pence aware of the actual motivations behind the decision to fire James Comey, he lobbied for it.  Until or unless Mike Pence can prove otherwise, we must presume that he, like Donald Trump, is guilty of obstruction of justice.

Nor does it stop with Mike Pence.  The Attorney General of the United States, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, after recusing himself from any involvement in the FBI’s investigation of the connections between Trump and the Russians, nevertheless intervened to recommend the termination of Director Comey, and he did so at the behest of the man who is the primary target of that investigation.  Until or unless Jeff Sessions can prove otherwise, we must presume that he is guilty of obstruction of justice.

It goes even further.  Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Reince Priebus; his “special counselor,” Steve Bannon; even his son-in-law, Jared Kushner—all knew of, participated in, or argued for the decision to fire James Comey in the midst of an FBI investigation regarding possible collusion between the Trump administration and the Russians.    Until or unless these people can establish their innocence, we must presume them to be guilty of obstruction of justice.

Worst than all of that is the complicity of the Republican Party’s leaders in Congress.  Despite all the evidence, in the face of all the warning signs, against all sense of right and wrong, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have chosen to ignore the lies and defend the crimes.  Until or unless they can demonstrate their innocence, we must presume them to be guilty of obstructing justice.

When Trump finally comes tumbling down, as I believe he will, many lives and careers will come tumbling after him.  His fall will not be that of a single man; it will be the fall of a presidential administration.  It may even be the fall of an entire political party.