Trump, closer to the dock

"No one is above the law" is a proclamation that practically all judicial systems in countries that are governed by true democracies have been known to uphold. It has also just been reiterated by US Attorney General Merrick Garland, after concluding the public hearings of the Congressional Investigation Committee on the assault on the Capitol on 6 January 2021. 

Despite all the obstacles and difficulties put in place by a Republican Party almost phagocytised by former President Donald Trump, the "January 6 Commission" has heard very conclusive testimony about its responsibility in what, unambiguously, was an attempted coup d'état in the only great country in the world that boasts of not having suffered one in its almost two and a half centuries of history. 

The latest statement recorded by the commission, broadcast live nationwide in prime time, came from its chairman, Bennie Thompson, whose findings constitute a damning indictment. "The president has opened the way to disorder and corruption, all those responsible for the attack [on the Capitol] must be brought to justice for their actions", and among those responsible Donald Trump emerges as the prime mover. 

Thompson concluded his plea by demanding that those acts "have severe consequences, because if they don't I fear our democracy will not recover". 

Of the many witnesses who have paraded before the commission and offered their testimony, there has been virtual unanimity in pointing to Trump as the instigator of the masses, who after having whipped them up to storm the Capitol merely followed the events through the television set up in his private dining room. Congresswoman Elaine Luria denounces the impassivity of the then president, "who ignored not only his advisers, but also members of his family who begged him to intervene, and who acted as he did because of his own selfish desire to stay in power". So much so that he flew into a rage when his then vice-president, Mike Pence, whom he described as a traitor, ignored his order to boycott the parliamentary ratification of Joe Biden's election victory.

The same Congresswoman Elaine Luria reiterated several times that no security forces, neither the Federal Police, nor the local Washington Police, nor the National Guard were called at any time to give them orders to come to the aid of their besieged policemen on Capitol Hill. 

One of the counselors who was most consistent in demanding a public statement from the President was the counselor in charge of legal affairs, Pat Cipollone, who reaffirmed to the committee "the clear need in that situation for an immediate and clear statement commanding those people to leave the Capitol". An accusation that was also insisted on by Adam Kinzinger, one of the only two Republican congressmen who agreed to appear before the committee and were later repudiated by their party: "The president's failure to act for 187 minutes was not a mistake," said Kinzinger, "his failure to act was a conscious and deliberate act". 

The committee is now closing its public hearings to work on the final draft of its report, which is expected to be completed in the autumn, in principle before the mid-term congressional elections, with polls predicting a defeat for the Democratic Party for the time being. 

For his part, Donald Trump, who has not ceased his declaratory attacks on the aforementioned parliamentary commission, and who has already announced his intention to run again in the 2024 presidential elections, it seems that only his appearance in court, charged at least with the crime of attempting to subvert the constitutional order, could stop him from doing so. It seems unlikely that this will not happen, unless of course the motto that no one is above the law is not respected with him. In which case, as Bennie Thompson predicts, the much-admired American democracy would be seriously damaged, to say the least.