By Brigitte L. Nacos
The year before coming to power in Germany the Nazis claimed falsely that Hitler had defeated President Hindenburg in the German parliament’s presidential election. As Sebastian Haffner, then a young German, wrote later, “Summoned as a witness before the highest German court, Adolf Hitler bellowed at the judges that he would one day come to power by strictly constitutional means and then heads would roll.” Hitler repeated his retribution threat at a following court session. But he was not charged with contempt and gone to jail as any other German would have at that time. Perhaps, the highest court feared Hitler’s heavily armed private army of storm troopers.
In the last several weeks, former President and current presidential candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked the Manhattan prosecutor responsible for Trump’s criminal indictment, the judge who presides during his current trial, and the jury that will come up with the verdict. When Trump violated the judge’s gag order repeatedly, he was held in contempt and threatened with jail. But while any other defendant attacking, as the judge said, the rule of law would have spent some time in jail, Mr. Trump did not. The former president does not have storm troopers like Hitler, but he and his sycophants are loose with references to violence. The latest came from Matt Gaetz whose online battle cry “Stand Back and Stand By” was a repeat of Trump’s 2020 command to the Proud Boys who—along with the Oath Keepers—were instrumental in the violent breach of the capitol on January 6, 2021. Trump’s promise that he would pardon on day one of his next presidency all imprisoned January 6 “hostages," among them the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keeper groups--domestic terrorists-- is another attack on the rule of law.
Trump and his MAGA followers are relentlessly attacking the Department of Justice, prosecutors, and judges. They must be thrilled about the support they receive from members of the US Supreme Court, whose ethics violations in the context and in support of illegal actions by Trump and leading GOP officials become ever more scandalous.
Not enough that Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife, the two calling themselves “best friends,” was an active supporter of the coup attempt to deny Joe Biden the electoral college votes he legitimately won. We now learn that shortly after January 6 and merely days before Biden’s inauguration an up-side-down US flag—a symbol for “Stop the Steal” MAGA activists--was flown outside Justice Alito’s house.
That much for the once highly regarded Supreme Court that soon will decide whether former president Donald Trump enjoys unlimited immunity for criminal actions during and after his presidency.
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