The prospect of Donald Trump finally facing justice for the most serious of his many alleged crimes – conspiring to subvert the 2020 US presidential election – is cheering. Unfortunately, it has taken more than two and a half years to call the disgraced former president to account for his actions after his loss to Joe Biden. This delay has enabled Trump and his supporters to link last week’s criminal indictment to the 2024 election campaign. They denounce it as a politically motivated bid to torpedo the Republican frontrunner’s attempted comeback.
Like so much of what Trump says, this is a blatant lie – though sadly, many Americans believe it. Biden has scrupulously distanced himself from the multiple investigations into his predecessor’s conduct. For too long, the attorney general, Merrick Garland, whose justice department operates independently of the White House, failed to act – hoping, perhaps, that the Trump-Maga phenomenon would fade. That did not happen. Even so, special counsel Jack Smith was not appointed until last November.
