RSN: FOCUS: Robert Reich | Should Garland Criminally Prosecute Trump?

 

 

30 June 22

Live on the homepage now!
Reader Supported News

CAN SOMEONE, ANYONE DONATE $100? — We’re under 24 hours to go for June and way below where we were last month and where we need to be. This is a serious problem that threatens RSN — for real. Who out there can spare a hundred? With urgency and respect.
Marc Ash • Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

 

FOCUS: Robert Reich | Should Garland Criminally Prosecute Trump?
Robert Reich, Substack
Reich writes: "The extraordinary hearings of the House select committee on January 6 have provided a roadmap for the criminal prosecution of Trump by Attorney General Merrick Garland."

There are at least 3 reasons why he should not. How would you respond to them?

Friends,

The extraordinary hearings of the House select committee on January 6 have provided a roadmap for the criminal prosecution of Trump by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Yesterday’s hearing, featuring Cassidy Hutchinson, was sensational not only in the portrait it painted of a bonkers, out-of-control president, but also in its substantial additional evidence of Trump’s criminality — especially his knowledge that his supporters who arrived in Washington were armed and dangerous and were planning to go to the Capitol to stop the electoral count on January 6, his eagerness to encourage them, his unwillingness to stop them even after the havoc had begun, and the significant probability of his witness tampering.

But at least three reasons have been offered for not criminally prosecuting Trump:

(1) A criminal prosecution requires evidence of criminal intent, but Trump may honestly have believed that the election was stolen from him and that the nation required extraordinary steps to right this wrong.

(2) No former president in history has ever been criminally prosecuted for acts committed while in office, and doing so would establish a dangerous precedent.

(3) Such a criminal prosecution would only deepen the bitter political divide now pulling the nation apart, potentially generating more violence.

So today’s Office Hours question is this: Do you agree with any or all of these reasons for not criminally prosecuting Trump? And if not, why not?

READ MORE

Special Coverage: Ukraine, A Historic Resistance
READ MORE

 

Contribute to RSN

Follow us on facebook and twitter!

Update My Monthly Donation

PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611