Testimony reminds us what Trump did, and can try again

On Thursday, former special adviser Jack Smith testified before the House Judiciary Committee in a mini-version of the two criminal trials of Donald Trump that America would have had if Trump had not returned to the White House last year.

Smith easily parried the disorderly attacks from Republican congressmen and presented, once again, the reality of Trump’s “catastrophic” efforts to upend our democracy. As Smith testified under oath, Trump “engaged in criminal activity” to overturn the results of a fair election and also to steal classified documents from Mar-a-Lago.

The two trials that were aborted would have held Trump accountable for his actions before and after his 2020 election defeat and his illegal retention of government records during his retreat in Florida. Those trials never happened, but Trump’s public conduct and the exhaustive work of Smith’s team of prosecutors clearly established Trump’s guilt and character.

We should all pause here to think about the implications of it being considered courageous for a former federal prosecutor to simply stand before Congress and answer questions honestly. And let’s be clear, this is brave; Trump and his acolytes have demonstrated very conclusively that they are willing, even willing, to use government functions as a weapon against perceived enemies. This is done neither subtly nor infrequently, as Smith’s former colleagues at the Justice Department are now routinely asked to file frivolous lawsuits against officials at all levels of government and even private citizens who appear to be undermining Trump’s authority in some way.

From New York Attorney General Tish James to Fed Chairman Jay Powell to Kilmar Abrego García, a man whose only transgression appears to have been to embarrass the administration through his erroneous expulsion, the threat of having the awesome might of the federal apparatus descend on you for your speech, your policy position, or your very existence is all too real.

This militarization is, of course, partly what Smith was investigating in the first place. When Trump attempted to pressure members of Congress, state officials and his own vice president to use procedural tools to overturn the results of the 2020 election, he was implicitly or sometimes explicitly invoking the idea of ​​using his authority to punish those who disagreed.

When that didn’t work, Trump turned to violence, sending his henchmen to attack the Capitol in an active effort to subvert American democracy. No amount of revisionist history or MAGA uproar will change these facts. Trump, despite his and his congressional toads’ insinuations to the contrary, has never been acquitted or exonerated of these charges. It was his Supreme Court that gave him his get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of a disastrous immunity ruling, dealing a blow to the investigation that preceded Trump’s elimination from the 2024 election. This victory in no way negates the reality of what he did.

Faced with this stark reality, President Jim Jordan and the other clowns in his MAGA circus used their time with Smith to attack him on personal terms and boast about his decision to subpoena limited phone recordings of certain lawmakers, although they conveniently omitted that those recordings were linked to Trump’s attempts to leverage Congress to subvert the rule of law. Never mind; this is what we expect from the captured GOP.

If the past is prologue, Trump will once again try to wield his power for his own purposes. Local and state officials, federal staff still loyal to the Constitution, federal judges and others should be prepared for this eventuality; the consequences of its success are disastrous.