Donald Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to be indicted on federal felony charges as he faced 37 federal felony charges in a Miami courtroom. During his arraignment on June 13, Trump pled “not guilty” on 31 counts of violating the Espionage Act through “willful retention” of classified records, plus 6 counts of obstruction of justice and false statements that stem from his alleged efforts to block the investigation. Trump valet Walt Nauta was also charged with six felonies related to the alleged cover-up.
Federal Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, will be overseeing the twice impeached president’s case. Early on, Judge Cannon disrupted the documents investigation by issuing rulings favorable to Trump that a conservative appeals court later overturned in a rebuke to the judge.
Trump, who faces a New York indictment in the hush money case and multiple criminal investigations for his attempted coup to reverse the results of the 2020 presidential election, is fundraising off his legal troubles and remains the frontrunner in the race to become the Republican party 2024 presidential nominee. Trump loyalists like Republican Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona recently ominously stated that the nation has “reached a war phase, an eye for an eye.” Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Amanda Marcotte, senior politics writer at Salon.com and author, who assesses the danger in many Republican legislators’ use of violent rhetoric in Trump’s defense, and their calls for retribution.
AMANDA MARCOTTE: After Jan. 6, I think that right now there is a lack of a real interest in people sticking their neck out for Donald Trump in that way for two reasons. I think a lot of people misunderstand domestic terrorism — especially if it’s organized or if it’s groups of people — it’s geared towards a specific goal. So Jan. 6, they were actually trying to overturn the election, trying to stop the certification of it, right?
I don’t know that they are convinced that they’re doing violence will stop this indictment, that will stop this trial or anything like that. You know, at best, it delays it for a couple of days, right? And then it might even backfire because they reassigned it to a courthouse that doesn’t have Aileen Cannon as the judge.
They’re smarter or more strategic than I think a lot of people think. So I am somewhat confident that that’s not going to happen. That said, I want to be really clear that Trump and other Republicans stoking the idea that violence is an acceptable response to their grievances is having all sorts of knock on effects across the country. They may not do violence for Donald Trump’s indictment, but they’re taking those violent urges and they’re taking it out on black people, Asian-Americans, Latino Americans and LGBTQ people.
That’s where I think a lot of that violence is getting directed right now.
SCOTT HARRIS: Well, Amanda, whatever happens in the classified documents case, the most heinous crime committed by Trump is his leading the multi-pronged conspiracy to overthrow the 2020 presidential election when he lost and supporting the violent insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6 that resulted in the deaths of five people and hundreds of injuries. It’s kind of inexplicable that the Department of Justice, Merrick Garland, hasn’t brought charges against Trump in these two and a half years.
Are you optimistic Jack Smith and the DOJ, Merrick Garland et al. are on their way to bringing some charges or is trying to overthrow the government a crime without a penalty?
AMANDA MARCOTTE: I am optimistic. I wasn’t before because I do think Merrick Garland wasted an entire year hoping this would go away and then it didn’t. And so when he realized that it wasn’t going to go away, that he was going to have to man up and hire somebody to actually deal with the situation, he did hire someone who seems to be very serious about this.
And I actually have been impressed by Jack Smith. The reports are that the grand jury investigation of the Jan. 6 is going really well. I think he just unfortunately lost a year because of Merrick Garland screwing around. But I am optimistic that he’s going to bring charges. And, you know, I would say that people who treat these two cases as entirely separate are missing the point to a certain extent, because they’re not.
It’s clear to me with the timeline and everything that Trump probably took those classified documents in some kind of hare-brained scheme after Jan. 6. It was less than two weeks later that he had those boxes packed up and moved. So I think that this classified document scheme is, in his mind, if nothing else, like a continuation of the coup effort.
He was like, “Well, that didn’t work. So I’m going to take all these boxes and at some point I’ll figure out how I can leverage them to do” whatever he thinks he can do with them. I don’t think he’s thought this through, but I do think he took those documents for leverage.
SCOTT HARRIS: Well, Amanda, I guess just one final thing I would ask you. Do you think we all as citizens need to be more engaged in this? It’s not just a spectator sport, is it? I mean, we have to pressure the government to hold people to account. I think it’s obvious from your review of this two-and-a-half-year gap that we need to, tight?.
AMANDA MARCOTTE: Yes. And I think we also need to hold ourselves accountable because it’s clear that we can’t ask the justice system to handle the problem for us, even if they indict him, even if they prosecute him. There’s always a chance like this, he’s got a judge in his pocket. I mean, that’s unfortunate. That alone could ruin this case. You never know.
A jury could have a MAGA person or two on it that tank it. The justice system is too chaotic and in many cases too corrupt after Republicans messing with it for decades to just expect it to save us. And I think that, you know, I would love for Donald Trump to go to jail. No one deserves it more.
But we can’t count on it and we can’t count on him not winning an election even if he is in jail. So it’s on us to make sure he does not get elected again. We’re in a very dire situation in this country.
For more information, visit Amanda Marcotte’s author’s page at Salon.com.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Amanda Marcotte (14:16) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page.
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