Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said he would blur the faces of people participating in the incident at the Capitol on Jan. 6 in the footage he released so the United States Department of Justice could not use the footage to prosecute those breaking the law.
Column By John Young
He billows nonsense like an uncapped geyser.
He launches white lies like a legion of snowblowers.
When it comes to shamelessness, Donald Trump is a warp-speed, high-velocity offender. Who can keep up?
Special Counsel Jack Smith can.
Thanks to video tape and social media, Trump just keeps awarding prosecutors what it will take to convict him on multiple fronts.
As former prosecutor Joyce Vance observes, in statement after statement, Trump is an admission-of-guilt machine.
For instance, she points to Trump’s full-throated support for the Jan. 6 Capitol plunderers — promises of pardons to convicted rioters, praise for conspirators like Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio (“treated very badly”). Vance says such statements will come across to a jury as – yes, full-throated support for a riot and its conspirators.
In the most recent court filing on Trump’s attempted coup, Smith says that calling convicted insurrectionists “patriots” shows that on Jan. 6 Trump embraced “the criminal objective of obstructing” the certification of voters’ edict on him.
Republicans just can’t figure out how best to mislead Americans about those horrific events. Wasn’t Antifa behind the violence? Oh, wait! It was an FBI false flag. Yeah. That’s it!
Of course, it was neither. It was Trump followers and only Trump followers. Consider his own words when furious that metal detectors kept armed protesters away at the Jan. 6 rally, “They aren’t here to hurt me.”
Correct. They were there to hurt Mike Pence. Nancy Pelosi. Capitol police. They were there to wage war against democracy.
Now we see that House Speaker Mike Johnson wants to release the video of those events but blur out the faces of rioters.
Come on, MAGA Mike. If Antifa was behind the violence and bloodshed, shouldn’t we all be able to join Tucker Carlson in exonerating all those “peaceful tourists”?
With his ridiculous action, Johnson shows he buys completely into Trump’s claim that no laws were broken on Jan. 6. Well, guess what? Over 600 Trump supporters (of more than 1,000 charged) have pleaded guilty to charges.
“Guilty, your honor.” They said it. Mr. Trump, even they don’t believe what you say. And most said they raged on the Capitol because you asked them to.
On matters of guilt and innocence, Trump’s words and actions say everything. If he were not guilty on a host of counts for which he’s been indicted, he would not invest so much time trying to convince a court – any court – that he is immune from prosecution.
He would not stall and stall and stall. He would say, “I did nothing wrong. Let the trial begin.”
One of his most absurd claims is that having been “acquitted” in the Senate impeachment trial over his role in the insurrection (a vote in which a majority of senators voted for his removal) it would be double jeopardy to try him again. Nice try, said U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
The other claim shot down by the judge was simply specious – a Richard Nixon golden oldie from 1977: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
Chutkan’s stinging response seems to have percolated in her system for a lifetime.
Trump’s four years in office “did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens.”
The presidency, she said, “does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free pass.’”
“Defendant may be subject to federal investigation, indictment, prosecution, conviction for any criminal acts undertaken while in office.”
We all heard Donald Trump swear that as president he’d “faithfully execute” the laws of this country. It was Jan. 20, 2017. Does he remember? Is this one of those senility issues?
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
