The crimes of Donald J. Trump

 The impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump for inciting the deadly, riotous insurrection of the Capitol January 6 begins February 9 in the Senate. The single charge “Incitement of Insurrection" accuses Trump of having "willfully made statements that encouraged—and foreseeably resulted in—imminent lawless action at the Capitol". As a result of incitement by Trump, "a mob unlawfully breached the Capitol" and "engaged in violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts".

But that is not Trump’s gravest crime nor the one he’s being tried upon. That higher crime is conspiracy to overturn the election which removed him from office. Tho unsuccessful, it threatened to end the American Experiment of representative democracy we have promulgated for 244 years as the beacon for all 194 other countries to emulate.

Never in 58 previous elections had an incumbent president or contender so conspired to nullify millions of voters of their constitutional duty and say in determining our democratically elected leader. Trump not only conspired to prevent his removal from office, he acted upon it both individually and in concert with others, including over 140 members of Congress.

He governed his entire term in preparation to delegitimize the election should he lose. It began with his charge of massive voter fraud in the 2016 election that denied him the popular vote victory when he actually lost by 2.9 million votes.

It escalated with the re-election campaign when he charged that the only way he could lose was by Democratic Party voter fraud. The real voter fraud was Trump’s determination to prevent mail in voting necessitated by pandemic and likely to oust him from office.

The conspiracy exploded Election Night. Trump declared victory, setting the stage to promote the Big Lie that the inevitable avalanche of big city Democratic votes sweeping him out proved his charge of ‘stolen election’.

Trump maintained his insurrection against America’s most hallowed foundation of a peaceful transfer of power for ten weeks. It culminated, almost inevitably, in the deadly attack on the Capitol to stop the Electoral College certification vote January 6.

Think of the conspiracy to overturn the election as a declaration of war. The Capitol insurrection was the violent battle to sustain the conspiracy. Tho conspiracy the greater crime, Trump will only have to defend the lessor crime of ‘incitement of insurrection’. In the cruelest of ironies, eight of his co-conspirators in the Senate will vote to acquit, allowing Trump to run again against American representative government.

The crimes of Trump may not pay….but most likely nor will they punish.