This is what justice looks like - The Washington Post

One could almost hear the walls closing in on the former president on Tuesday, albeit not for any alleged crimes having to do with his time in office (e.g., pressuring election officials in Georgia, inciting a riot at the Capitol, obstructing justice).

The Post reports: “Manhattan’s district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict former president Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the development.” The former president, like any American, enjoys the presumption of innocence in a criminal court. That said, “the move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation of the former president and his business has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance thinks he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump, by someone potentially close to him or by his company.”

Now consider what we did not see or hear:

• Any call from the White House to “lock him up”
• Any effort to taint the jury pool by leaks of incriminating evidence or accusations
• Any rush to judgment designed to influence the 2024 election
• Any misleading argument or preposterous legal theory advanced by the government in court as we saw in federal courts over the past four years

This is how criminal prosecutions are supposed to be conducted: out of the limelight, following facts, applying law and showing no political favoritism nor animus based on the identity of the defendant. Whatever decision the grand jury reaches on the former president or his associates, we can have confidence it will be a legal, not political, finding. (If anything, the Biden administration would like to get its predecessor off the national stage and out of the news.)

At the federal level, we have come to expect the Justice Department to be used as a political weapon against opponents, a shield to protect friends and cronies (not to mention the president himself) and an indifferent if not hostile force when it came to civil rights. Now that we can see how equal administration of justice is supposed to work, we can fully appreciate how far the department strayed under the disgraced former president.

When the FBI executed warrants at the home and office of Rudolph Giuliani, the former president’s lawyer, President Biden learned about it in the newspapers. He did not tweet about it. He did not express any opinion on the outcome of the case. This is how an apolitical, independent Justice Department is supposed to work.

Meanwhile, we were treated on Tuesday to the much-delayed confirmation of Kristen Clarke as head of the department’s civil rights division. Again, after seeing hacks and cronies appointed to jobs for which they were not remotely qualified, this was an “aha” moment: Someone with years of experience who is committed to the rigorous enforcement of civil rights laws will be able to operate without political interference from the White House. This is something new!

And in the months of scurrilous Republican accusations against Clarke — none of which panned out — we also saw something often missing in nominees under the last president: Clarke never lost her temper. She never accused Republicans of being out to get her (as Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh did against Democrats in his confirmation fight). And she never let the racially laden taunts (“radical,” extremist”) so often leveled at women of color get to her.

We have witnessed an onslaught of voter suppression legislation and a deliberate campaign to denigrate civil rights enforcers and advocates as somehow un-American (for the “sin” of recognizing systemic racism). But now, there will be someone in that office who can develop and implement a strategy for enforcing voting laws (with or without passage of H.R. 1 and H.R. 4), hire lawyers who believe in the mission of the division and receive the full support of the attorney general in resuming the Justice Department’s role as the nation’s top civil rights enforcer. How novel.

It will take years to undo the damage done to the Justice Department under the former president and his political fixers who occupied the AG’s office. The department needs a full accounting of wrongdoing and ethical lapses during the previous administration. New guidelines must limit and monitor communication between White House political aides and the Justice Department. Rules need to be put in place to prevent politicization of prosecutorial decisions. While that takes time, the rule of law might just make a comeback.

Read more:

Adblock test (Why?)

"Opinion" - Google News
May 26, 2021 at 11:00PM
https://ift.tt/34k30Ph

This is what justice looks like - The Washington Post
"Opinion" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2FkSo6m
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update