House Republicans Ask America to Believe Felons, Despise the Justice System

     Alvin Bragg taught Sunday school while Trump delivered a bitter, lie-riddled interview to FOX News. Guess who the party of "family values" is attacking? On May 30, 2024, a jury of 12 ordinary citizens, including a self-described Truth Social user and a woman who said she trusted Donald Trump over other politicians, convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records. He is set to be sentenced on July 11th, and I believe he is going to be sentenced to prison. 

       In spite of the fact that dozens of appeals attempts in state courts have failed, despite the fact that two separate judicial ethics bodies have ruled that Judge Merchan in no way violated ethics rules or the law in his conduct, in spite of the fact that 11 of the 12 jurors were agreed to by Trump, in spite of the fact that he was given the opportunity to testify, in spite of the fact that the jury instructions were consistent with the law and fair to both sides, and on and on, Trump has railed against the legal system for holding him accountable for violating the law. This jury verdict broke 50 years of terrible precedent set by Watergate, that presidents are above the law. It reaffirms that there are no kings in America, that the law applies even to the most powerful people.

     This hasn't sit well with House Republicans, all the way up to Speaker Mike Johnson, who flocked to the Manhattan courthouse throughout the trial to kiss Trump's proverbial ring, among other parts of his body, in hopes of elevating their own political status and attaining power. We've seen play out what we saw play out during the 2020 election and the aftermath of the January 6th election. This party of sycophants, which has gone between attacking and embracing their political kingpin whenever it suited them politically, would rather tear down every institution in the United States than face the fact that they have only won a single popular vote since the 1980s and adjust their policy to correct that alarming figure.

     Sadly, there are far too many more examples. January 6th is one of them. Among the people subpoena-defying representatives like Jim Jordan have brought into the committee is John Herbert Strand, a Florida man who was convicted of a felony and sentenced to 32 months in prison for storming the Capitol on January 6th. Trump and House Republicans have embraced each and every one of these defendants, from the nonviolent to the most violent. Trump recorded a song with the "January 6th choir." He's raised money for them, and repeatedly called them "hostages." Two of these people have been acquitted, and dozens of others have has mixed verdicts delivered by judges and juries. The overwhelming majority have pleaded guilty. Of the nearly 1,500 people charged for their actions that day, only 18 are being held pre-trial, a much lower rate than defendants in most criminal cases around the U.S. Every single one of these defendants is either charged with repeated acts of violence, has been deemed mentally unstable, has a lengthy criminal history, was initially granted pre-trial release but violated it by committing another crime, or has fled. Many fit into several of these categories, and one of the men held pre-trial actually ASKED to be held because he preferred it to being homeless. In fact, a Trump-appointed judge said on the record that he believed January 6th defendants were receiving MORE privileges than other defendants because of the high-profile nature of their cases. No, they're being treated unfairly, say the GOP, because of who they are.

     House Republicans and Donald Trump would ask America to believe the felons and despise the justice system they have had no complaints about for nearly 250 years except that it wasn't harsher. This, too, applies to the Hunter Biden cases, one of which is currently on trial in Delaware. TWO witnesses used by House Republicans to advance their failed impeachment probe of President Biden were indicted on serious felony charges. First was Gal Luft, a U.S.-Israeli think tank co-director who has been charged with acting as a foreign agent, illegally selling Chinese-made weapons, smuggling Iranian oil to China, and lying to federal investigators before fleeing the country. Then came an even bigger bombshell, the indictment of Alexander Smirnov. Smirnov, who has been called a "fraudster" in a previous case, was touted by House Republicans as a "highly-credible witness" and formed the backbone of the House impeachment inquiry that accused President Biden of bribery. In February 2024, Smirnov was indicted, accused of fabricating the entire story. House Republicans claimed that his testimony wasn't significant in their case, and yet they suspiciously stopped pushing to impeach President Biden and started pushing to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border in the weeks that followed.

     In both of these cases, House Republicans accused the Justice Department of filing charges against these felons to "interfere" with their sorry excuse for an investigation. The conspiracies have continued. Standard FBI protocol suddenly became an attempt by President Biden to assassinate Donald Trump during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, which was conducted when they knew Trump was in New Jersey. A local prosecutor was somehow forced to prosecute Trump by the White House. On and on these conspiracies have continued, and on and on they will. The Republican Party can't win when they tell the truth, and they know that tens of millions of Americans will believe every falsehood they perpetuate. In the January 6th cases, in Trump's conviction in New York, in their witch hunt against President Biden, and in every other case that has served to discredit their narratives, the party of "law and order" has had one message for Americans: fuck the blue.