After months of hearings, with evidence provided by hundreds of (mostly Republican) witnesses and millions of documents, the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection that Donald Trump incited is preparing to release their final report.
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Along with that report, the Committee is also issuing criminal referrals to the Justice Department for a cadre of Trump cohorts, as well as for Trump himself. The charges include Trump's role inciting and/or assisting the insurrection, obstruction of official Congressional proceedings, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. In anticipation of the Committee's conclusions, a frightened Trump has been acting out in his typically infantile, and ultimately impotent, fashion.
RELATED: Trump Being Too Scared to Testify Under Oath, Files Lawsuit Against the January 6th Committee
On Monday morning Trump's former vice-president and certified toady, Mike Pence, visited Fox News for another softball interview. In this outing Pence affirmed his allegiance to his former boss whose response to the insurrection contributed to the mob's hostilities and their fevered chants to "Hang Mike Pence." As an expression of his gratitude for nearly getting him killed, Pence told Fox News that "Few Americans are paying attention" to this Committee. He then elaborated on his opinion that Trump should be allowed to get away with his treasonous crimes...
"I would hope that [the Justice Department] would not bring charges against the former president. I think the president’s actions and words on January 6 were reckless, but I don’t know that it's criminal to take bad advice from lawyers and so I hope the Justice Department is careful."
Actually, Pence, who practiced law before his political career, does know that it absolutely can be criminal to take bad advice from lawyers. If your lawyer advises you to commit a crime - say rob a bank or lie under oath or incite a riot - and you take that advice, you are definitely criminally liable. And so, by the way, is your lawyer.
Even Fox News co-host Dana Perino shot back at Pence's reference to Trump's shady lawyers saying that "There might be criminal referrals on that too." She was referring to reports that criminal referrals are likely to be issued for Trump-associated attorneys John Eastman, Jeff Clark, and Rudy Giuliani. Pence then continued saying that...
"I hope the Justice Department understands the magnitude, the very idea of indicting a former president of the United States. I think that would be terribly divisive in the country at a time when the American people want to see us heal."
Pence doesn't have to worry about whether the Justice Department "understands the magnitude" of indicting a former president. It's obvious that they do. However, he might want to pay more attention to the magnitude of a former president trying to undermine democracy and overthrow the government.
He may also want to consider the necessity of holding such criminals accountable, not just to punish their unlawful acts, but in order to deter others from committing similar acts in the future. Trump is already advocating absolution for his insurrectionist hordes.
RELATED: Trump Promises to Halt the Prosecutions of the January 6th Mob He Incited to Attack Congress
What's more, Pence is misinterpreting - or more likely lying about - the American people's desire to "heal." They surely do. But a majority of them favor prosecuting Trump as the path to that healing.
For his part, Trump is behaving precisely as would be expected of a self-serving, narcissistic, wannabe dictator. He posted on his floundering Twitter ripoff, Truth Social, that...
"Republicans and Patriots all over the land must stand strong and united against the Thugs and Scoundrels of the Unselect Committee. It will be a dark period in American history, but with darkness comes light!!!"
The darkest period of modern American history has already passed. It ended when Trump was evicted by the American people from his occupation of the White House. The light emerged with the election of President Biden. But sadly, Trump continues to cast his corpulent shadow over the nation. And the only remedy for that is the for the law to be finally and fully enforced without fear or favor. Whether Pence wants it or not.
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