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We Can Indict Trump without the DOJ. What are Democrats Waiting For?


In 2024, the Supreme Court ended the monopoly that the Attorney General had on Presidential indictment and extended that power to District Attorneys and State Attorneys General. Democrats don’t need the DOJ to indict Trump.  They can do it themselves. 


They have chosen not to. 


Democratic prosecutors are allowing Trump to violate every Constitutional right that generations of our elders and ancestors fought to secure and maintain because they are either too cowardly to confront the Trump Administration or too unversed in the law to uphold our rights.  Whatever their excuse, we are where we are because of their inaction.


The first Big Lie was aimed at the right.  Republicans, traditional media outlets, social media outlets, and influencers worked together to convince members of the right that Trump had won the election and Democrats stole it.  The second Big Lie was aimed at the left and designed to make them think there was nothing they could do to stop him. 


Contrary to popular belief, though, the Supreme Court did not grant Trump the immunity of a king.  They took it away. 


Prior to the 2024 ruling, guidance on Presidential immunity and indictment was provided by a Nixon era Department of Justice memo entitled the Memorandum Re: Amenability of the President, Vice President and other Civil Officers to Federal Criminal Prosecution while in Office. It reads, in part:


…the President is the symbolic head of the Nation. To wound him by a criminal proceeding is to hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs. It is not to be forgotten that the modern Presidency, under whatever party, has had to assume a leadership role undreamed of in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The spectacle of an indicted President still trying to serve as Chief Executive boggles the imagination.


Nixon’s DOJ couldn’t come up with an argument that aligned with logic, so they chose to assert that holding the President accountable for his crimes was too mind-boggling to even imagine.


One could only wonder how mind-boggled Nixon’s DOJ would be by a President that tried to violently overturn the results of an election, protect vast networks of pedophiles, ensure we are vulnerable and unprotected in every way in the face of our enemies, use Nazi style white supremacists to invade our streets and shoot us in the face, gleefully send his DOJ after everyday Americans as well as public officials just for disagreeing with him, and use the Constitution like it’s his own personal toilet paper.  I digress.


The Nixon immunity memo was written in the wake of Watergate, and in response to Vice President Spiro Agnew’s claim that he had absolute immunity from indictment for crimes.  Facing criminal prosecution for crimes committed as a federal and state official, Agnew’s lawyers argued he could not be indicted while he was in office.  Nixon’s DOJ disagreed. 


The Republican party was concerned that if Nixon and Agnew vacated their offices, the White House and the DOJ would be turned over to Democrats.  Their solution was to bypass the Constitution and its separation of powers and grant the Executive Branch – not the Judicial Branch – the power to decide the boundaries of each Executive Branch official’s power. With that power, Nixon’s DOJ decided that sitting Presidents have absolute immunity for prosecution, but Vice President’s did not.


This allowed the Republicans to replace Agnew before Nixon resigned.  As a result, Republican Gerald Ford took office instead of Speaker of the House Democrat Carl Albert. 


Fast forward to 2024, and the Robert’s Court’s completely obliterated the power of the Attorney General to block indictment and handed authority to designate the boundaries of immunity back to the Courts.   SCOTUS held:


Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.


Contrary to the overwhelmingly absurd and aggressive propaganda campaigns designed to make us believe that SCOTUS let Trump walk free after trying to overturn the 2020 election – they actually gave prosecutors a clear roadmap for what needs to happen to indict, prosecute, and sentence the President.  Roberts explains:


No matter the context, the President’s authority to act necessarily “stem[s] either from an act of Congress or from the Constitution itself.”…When the President exercises such authority, he may act even when the measures he takes are “incompatible with the expressed or implied will of Congress.’ … But once it is determined that the President acted within the scope of his exclusive authority, his discretion in exercising such authority cannot be subject to further judicial examination….If the President claims authority to act but in fact exercises mere ‘individual will’ and ‘authority without law,’ the courts may say so.


Every step of the Court’s guidance is constructed to intentionally reaffirm the Judicial Branch’s authority over the Department of Justice.  This is why DA Alvin Bragg’s hush money case was allowed to move forward against Trump, and why DOJ’s Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s case was sent back to the lower courts.  None of their cases were dismissed because SCOTUS declared Trump to be immune. Trump just convinced us that’s what happened.


Trump wasn’t tossed in a prison cell when he was marked a 34-time felon because DA Bragg strategically chose not to pursue a tangible sentencing, not because SCOTUS has ruled a President can’t be incarcerated. Requesting a punishment-free sentencing was Bragg’s best bet to secure a conviction, and he took it.  Smith similarly pursued a strategic end to his efforts. He chose to request a dismissal without prejudice over handing the case to Trump’s Department of Justice so that the case would not be dismantled by Trump loyalists.  DA Fani Willis’s case, which had already secured 4 guilty pleas, was also allowed to move forward.  It stands a the perfect example of why we are at where we are at today. 


Fulton County DA Fani Willis likely had the strongest case against Trump and his co-conspirators. After Republicans campaigned to have her removed from the case for having a relationship with another attorney, it was placed on hold until a new attorney could be found to replace her.  Not a single eligible prosecutor in the state of Georgia stepped up to take her place.  As a result, the state prosecutor overseeing the transition that never happened filed for dismissal.


The Supreme Court didn’t allow Trump to walk free.  Every eligible Democratic prosecutor in the State of Georgia did. And prosecutors have been hiding in the shadows ever since.


The right has proceeded to frame every absurd, immoral, and illegal action Trump takes as an expression of kingly authority.  The left has convinced themselves that the courts no longer exist. Despite his constant and blatant disregard for the law or the rights of anyone anywhere, not a single criminal indictment has been pursued since Trump has taken office in his second term.


This is why the Trump Administration has put its foot on the pedal when it comes to breaking the law at home and abroad.  They want to do as much damage as they can before Democrats figure out that this is still the United States, no one Is above the law, criminals get prosecuted, and not even the President can avoid the consequences of his actions. 


Donald Trump and his co-conspirators are terrified of Democrats realizing that they can drag every last member of the Administration into court.  And they should be.


Trump is not immune for crimes committed outside of the duties of his office.  Obstructing justice, committing sex crimes, and conspiring to deprive the rights of Americans are not responsibilities designated to the President by the Constitution, the Courts, or Congress. A sitting President is not immune from indictment for crimes that he committed before becoming President, or in between terms, either.  And he is not immune from prosecution for crimes he committed while acting as the head of the Republican Party. 


Efforts to advance his criminal conspiracies at campaign rallies, for example, may be entirely unprotected.  Social media posts that advance his crimes while insulting Democrats may also leave Trump completely unprotected from prosecution.  Hypothetically, for every Truth Social post attacking Democrats and advancing a criminal campaign, Trump should have an accompanying indictment.


Trump and his criminal network should be so caught up in court cases, they don’t have time to dismantle our rights, attack Greenland, blow up schoolgirls, demolish the White House, or invite all of our enemies to enjoy our most sensitive information.


Criminally indicting the President is one of the most important things we, as Americans, can do to protect the Constitution. It is also our best chance of stopping this Mad-Hattering Jigsaw of an Administration from continuing to advance its global death puzzle so we can prevent the light of Democracy from going dark completely.   


While everyone is demanding that the Department of Justice release the files, Palm Beach County State Attorney Alexcia Cox and New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg can pursue indictments right now for every crime that ever came out of Mar-a-Lago and Trump Towers.  This includes crimes he has committed with and on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.  Cox and Bragg could be pursuing indictments for their state level equivalents of obstruction of justice right now.  No DOJ needed.


In Minneapolis, Minnesota, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriaty and State Attorney General Keith Ellison banded together to file a civil lawsuit against the DOJ and DHS for access to evidence related to the shootings of Renee Goode, Alex Pretti, and Jilo Soca-Celis.  Indictments for violations of state criminal statutes for aiding an offender, obstructing justice and witness tampering can be pursued, as well.


In Chicago and Los Angeles, ICE agents have been accused of corruption, bribery, excessive force, and sexual abuse.  The President can be indicted for his role in authorizing illegal tactics and violating criminal conspiracy and deprivation of rights under the color of law statues.  In Chicago, Cook County State Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burk, a Democrat, has the authority to pursue indictment. In Los Angeles, the District Attorney is Nathan Hochman (Independent).  As ICE agents conducted raids and violated state laws in multiple counties, the Illinois and California Attorneys General could also pursue indictments.  AGs Kwame Raoul of Illinois and Rob Bonta of California are Democrats.


Trump is leading a co-conspiracy to deny the rights of citizens and undocumented migrants alike through the use of ICE detention centers.  Every blue county containing a MAGA concentration camp should have a county level attorney working to summon grand juries to indict the President and his criminal co-conspirators.  Every blue state with an ICE detention facility should be deploying their Attorney Generals to secure indictments.


While ICE raids have been targeted, every state with ICE agents potentially has the right to pursue indictments if the President directed them to deprive the rights of the people across multiple counties. DAs and State AGs should be as aggressive, creative, and exhaustive in deploying strategies to defend our rights as the Trump Administration is in taking them.  Organizers and protesters needs to start directing their sit-ins and marches to achieve the goal of securing indictments, not media attention. 


There is action you and your Trump-detesting friends and family can take to put an end to this nightmare of a political era.  And it doesn't have to be performative.


Embarrassing Trump is not enough.  Telling the truth in the face of deception is not enough.  We need to work together to align around strategies designed to hamstring and stop the Trump Administration.  We finally have the chance.


It is the responsibility of county and state level prosecutors to defend us from a criminal Administration.  It is our responsibility as Americans to pressure them to do their jobs.  Here is a list of the names and numbers of District and State Attorneys (other than Bragg and Cox) that can start that process now. They all serve states and counties that have been targeted by ICE raid. Give them a call and ask them what in the hell they are waiting for. 


Take action, spread the word, and let’s end this once and for all. Call Democratic DAs, State AGs, and the organizations that represent them and tell them to get to work.


 





 
 
 

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