The end of Donald Trump’s Georgia state case 10 months into his second White House term means that of the four criminal prosecutions in which he was indicted on felony charges, only the Stormy Daniels case (the weakest of the four) was resolved.
Blame Sen. Mitch McConnell and at least nine other Republicans who refused to join 57 of their bipartisan colleagues and convict Trump at his second impeachment trial on Feb. 21, 2021 for summoning the violent attack on the Capitol the month before. A two-thirds guilty vote of 67 senators would have forever barred Trump from elected office and he could have been prosecuted in the courts of law for his offenses.
As the Constitution says: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”
Trump’s “Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment” in the federal election interference and stolen document cases, both prosecuted by Special Counsel Jack Smith, and the Georgia state indictment for election interference would have continued to their normal conclusion with guilty or not guilty verdicts. Instead, all three were short-circuited when Trump returned to the White House.
He wasn’t cleared or exonerated. He was elected, making the prosecutions impossible. Even with the U.S. Supreme Court granting presidents broad immunity for official acts, Trump had many non-official acts in the indictments, as stealing an election is not an official act and neither is stealing secret documents.
Georgia prosecutor Peter Skandalakis, brought in to shepherd the case after a tumultuous period, declared that “the citizens of Georgia are not served by pursuing this case in full for another five to 10 years.” As so, Trump skates, as do his fellow election thieves like Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff.
Skandalakis wrote, “To reiterate, it is not illegal to challenge election results.” But what this gang was doing wasn’t to challenge results, which was a Joe Biden victory in Georgia, checked, rechecked, verified and certified. It was Trump calling Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and infamously being recorded saying, “I just want to find 11,780 votes… you can’t let that happen. That’s a big risk to you.”
Skandalakis twisted himself silly writing that there could have been an innocent explanation of “Trump, genuinely believing fraud had occurred, is asking the Secretary of State to investigate and determine whether sufficient irregularities exist to change the election outcome.”
No, Trump wanted Raffensperger to cheat and produce 11,780 votes which didn’t exist to put him over Biden by one vote. Even if that had happened, Trump would have still lost in the Electoral College unless at least two additional states were also stolen.
But the case is over, in part because of the shockingly poor judgment of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who both delayed and muddied the prosecution through an affair with the special prosecutor for the case. It needed to be finished before Trump was reelected and so he simply has gotten away because the election calendar was faster.
Senate Republicans failed to hold Trump accountable four years ago. They can still do so. Now, it is time for Congress and the courts to reassert the breadth of their power. It can be and must be done, and they are the only ones who can really do it.
