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JULY 18, 2023

Meyerson on TAP

The Mills of the Gods Catch Up With Trump

New York taxes? Document possession? Finally, the mega-crime: attempting
to seize power through fraud and force.

It is, to state this gently, goddam motherf'in' about time.

Former President Trump revealed today that he's received a letter from
Special Counsel Jack Smith notifying him that he's a target in
Smith's investigation of the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by
Trump supporters seeking to overturn the results of the 2020
presidential election. Hundreds of participants in that insurrection
have long since been indicted; many have been convicted, many are
currently in prison. As the instigator of that insurrection and of phony
elector slates and of groundless court actions all devised to give him
another term in the White House despite his having lost the election,
Trump had already ensured his place in America's ninth circle of hell.
Now, at long last, he may be held legally accountable as well.

Ever since the Manhattan DA indicted Trump on financial chicanery, the
most incriminating details to be provided in due time, not to mention
Trump's subsequent indictment for clinging to classified documents
that weren't his to cling to, a what's-wrong-with-this-picture sense
has afflicted a large number of inquiring minds (mine included). Where,
we wondered, was the indictment for trying to overthrow the legitimate
government through fraud and force? The interminable delay in indicting
him for trying to get Georgia's secretary of state to create just
enough fictitious votes to swing that state into his column has been a
matter of public record for more than two years, but Fulton County's
DA has yet to file charges. So it has fallen to Counsel Smith to do what
his letter to Trump portends: indict the Donald for his truly treasonous
offense.

If there was ever even the remotest chance that Trump would conduct his
current presidential campaign on issues pertaining to policy and the
future of the country, his forthcoming indictment dooms any such
prospects. He will now campaign solely on the threadbare lie that he won
the 2020 election and will exact vengeance on those who say otherwise.
Assuming that he wins the Republican nomination, his focus on 2020
election denial won't help him in the general election: Virtually
every 2020-election-denying Republican who sought office in a truly
contested election last November went down to defeat.

Moreover, Trump's pending indictment puts the current crew of
Republican office seekers-those running for president most
particularly-in a bind. At some level, they know they can't really
defend the January 6th insurrection and what will emerge as Trump's
role in it. That leaves them with the fallback option of attacking Smith
and the Justice Department for indicting the GOP presidential
front-runner in the midst of the campaign; indeed, they already are
doing just that. Earlier today, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told a South
Carolina gathering that Trump should have "come out more forcefully"
against the insurrection, but he also characterized the pending
indictment as "an attempt to criminalize politics and to try to
criminalize differences."

That, of course, characterizes January 6th as "politics" and
"differences." If the Republican field sticks to that line-and fear of
the Trumpian base makes that all but certain-and if they keep fighting
on that line straight through next year, I don't think they'll be
doing themselves any electoral favor. A Trump indictment for attempting
the overthrow of the constitutional order and the verdict of the
electorate guarantees that 2024 will be more of a referendum on Trump
than a referendum on Biden. That's a contest the GOP will lose, oh so
deservedly so.

"The mills of the gods grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine" is
an adage commonly attributed to ancient Greek philosopher Sextus
Empiricus. It would only be fitting if this Empiricism drags down the
party of the Big Lie.

~ HAROLD MEYERSON

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Donald Trump Is Plotting to Make Himself Dictator
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His plan is to make the federal government his plaything, and many
Republican elites are behind him. BY RYAN COOPER

Radical Problems and Liberal Solutions
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Joe Biden is doing well given the divided Congress. Unfortunately, the
economy's deep structural problems require far more drastic
remedies-and failure has political fallout. BY ROBERT KUTTNER

One More Reason Why the Court Needs a Code
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Justice Sotomayor's use of Court staff to help sell books wouldn't
be permitted under lower courts' codes of conduct. BY STEVEN LUBET

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