{"id":14664,"date":"2023-06-10T20:07:07","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T03:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14664"},"modified":"2023-06-11T22:05:48","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T05:05:48","slug":"issue-of-the-week-145","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=14664","title":{"rendered":"Issue of the Week: Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Trump’s Case Puts The Justice System On Trial<\/em>, The New York Times, June 11, 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Another first in American history has happened, and not a good one, related to Donald Trump. The front page article in the Sunday New York Times, posted today, and the editorial tomorrow, also posted today, tell the story:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Trump\u2019s Case Puts the Justice System on Trial, in a Test of Public Credibility”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Peter Baker<\/a>, June 11, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The former president\u2019s efforts to defend against multiple felony counts by discrediting law enforcement pose a grave challenge to democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Polls suggest that former President Donald J. Trump has made headway in persuading his supporters \u2014 and perhaps others \u2014 that any allegations against him are just political.Credit…Sophie Park for The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By\u00a0Peter Baker<\/a>, June 11, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter Baker has covered the White House under the past five presidents, including all four years that Donald J. Trump was in office. He reported from Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald J. Trump has a lot at stake in the federal criminal case lodged against him. He could, in theory, go to prison for years. But if he winds up in the dock in front of a jury, it is no exaggeration to suggest that American justice will be on trial as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History\u2019s first federal indictment against a former president<\/a> poses one of the gravest challenges to democracy the country has ever faced. It represents either a validation of the rule-of-law principle that even the most powerful face accountability for their actions or the moment when a vast swath of the public becomes convinced that the system has been irredeemably corrupted by partisanship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Trump, his allies and even some of his Republican rivals have embarked on a strategy to encourage the latter view, arguing that law enforcement has been hijacked by President Biden and the Democrats to take out his strongest opponent for re-election next year. Few if any of them bothered to wait to read the indictment<\/a>before backing Mr. Trump\u2019s all-caps assertion that it was merely part of the \u201cGREATEST WITCH HUNT OF ALL TIME.\u201d It is now an article of faith, a default tactic or both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jack Smith<\/a>, the special counsel, and his prosecutors knew that defense was coming and have labored to avoid any hint of political motivation with a by-the-book approach, securing the assent of judges and grand jurors along the way. Moreover, their indictment laid out a damning series of facts based on security camera video, text messages and testimony from within Mr. Trump\u2019s own team; even some who have defended him in the past say it will be harder to brush aside the evidence in a courtroom than in the court of public opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the public arena, though, it may be a one-sided fight. Mr. Trump and his allies can scream as loudly as they can that the system is unfair, but prosecutors are bound by rules limiting how much they can say in response. To the extent that Democrats defend prosecutors, it may only buttress the point Mr. Trump is trying to make to the audience he is trying to reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think the verdict on democracy ultimately comes down to Republican leaders and Republican voters,\u201d said David Jolly, a former Republican congressman from Florida who left the party during the Trump presidency. \u201cTheir current weaponization narrative is dangerous and destabilizing, but seems to reflect the party\u2019s early consensus. If they don\u2019t pivot soon to due process and faith in the system, I think we could have very dark days ahead. I do worry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mr. Trump has attacked the Justice Department and Jack Smith, the special counsel in the case, calling him a lunatic.Credit…Kenny Holston\/The New York Times<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Polls suggest that Mr. Trump has made headway in persuading at least his own supporters that any and all allegations against him are just political. After the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, brought state charges against him related to hush money paid to an adult film actress<\/a>, the former president\u2019s support among Republicans rose, rather than fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While 60 percent of all adults surveyed by CNN<\/a> afterward approved of the charges, 76 percent agreed that politics played a role in the prosecution. As for the effect on America\u2019s system, 31 percent said the indictment strengthened democracy, while 31 percent said it weakened it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of which indicates that the system\u2019s credibility is on the line in a way it has not been before. Many have criticized American justice over the years for systemic racism, excessive punishment, mistreatment of women subjected to assault or other issues, but they did not command the bullhorn of the presidency. When past presidents like Richard M. Nixon or Bill Clinton got in trouble, they defended themselves aggressively, but did not call the whole system into question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n