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Evenhanded Injustice: Jan. 6 Pardons, Commutations & Dismissals -- Roger Parloff - Lawfare
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/evenhanded-injustice--jan.-6-pardons--commutations---dismissalsHow the “individual most responsible for what occurred that day” is trying to erase history.
In volume two of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report, relating to President Donald Trump’s attempt to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, Smith wrote that four objectives listed in the Justice Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution influenced his decision to bring the case. One of those was “to promote fair and evenhanded application of the law.”
Given that “more than 1,500 people [had] been criminally charged for their roles in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol,” he explained, the fact that Trump was “the individual most responsible for what occurred” that day “weighed heavily in favor of charging him.” Over the next five pages, Smith provided a sampling of the types of evidence indicating that Trump was, indeed, “the individual most responsible for what occurred” that day: multiple judges’ observations at sentencings; defendants’ contemporaneous statements on social media or video explaining why they were about to commit, were committing, or had committed their crimes; Trump’s language at the Ellipse and the crowd’s response to it; formal defenses invoked by rioters’ defense counsel, arguing that Trump had authorized or induced their clients’ crimes; defense attorney arguments in summations, blaming Trump for the violence; and pleas for leniency by defendants or their family members at sentencing, averring that the defendant had believed he or she was serving Trump.
But once Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith bowed to longstanding Justice Department policy, rooted in constitutional principles, and dismissed his cases against Trump. The goal of evenhanded justice had to give way to constitutional separation-of-powers doctrines.
Hours after his inauguration on Jan. 20, President Trump unveiled a new goal: achieving evenhanded injustice. Not only would Trump himself evade accountability; all Jan. 6 rioters who acted in service of Trump’s election lies would also evade accountability—or at least full accountability—for their offenses.
...
Given that “more than 1,500 people [had] been criminally charged for their roles in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol,” he explained, the fact that Trump was “the individual most responsible for what occurred” that day “weighed heavily in favor of charging him.” Over the next five pages, Smith provided a sampling of the types of evidence indicating that Trump was, indeed, “the individual most responsible for what occurred” that day: multiple judges’ observations at sentencings; defendants’ contemporaneous statements on social media or video explaining why they were about to commit, were committing, or had committed their crimes; Trump’s language at the Ellipse and the crowd’s response to it; formal defenses invoked by rioters’ defense counsel, arguing that Trump had authorized or induced their clients’ crimes; defense attorney arguments in summations, blaming Trump for the violence; and pleas for leniency by defendants or their family members at sentencing, averring that the defendant had believed he or she was serving Trump.
But once Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Smith bowed to longstanding Justice Department policy, rooted in constitutional principles, and dismissed his cases against Trump. The goal of evenhanded justice had to give way to constitutional separation-of-powers doctrines.
Hours after his inauguration on Jan. 20, President Trump unveiled a new goal: achieving evenhanded injustice. Not only would Trump himself evade accountability; all Jan. 6 rioters who acted in service of Trump’s election lies would also evade accountability—or at least full accountability—for their offenses.
...