Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied

Who’s to blame for the pace of Trump’s January 6 trial?

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Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives on August 1, 2023, to give remarks on a recently unsealed indictment that includes four felony counts against former President Donald Trump. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

“I think all of the cases should be dealt with before November,” Nikki Haley said Thursday when asked about Donald Trump’s many pending criminal trials. “We need to know what’s going to happen before it, before the presidency happens, because after that, should he become president, I don’t think any of it’s going to get heard.”

“I just think a president has to live according to the laws, too,” she added. “You don’t get complete immunity.”

You can count on one hand the number of Republicans with a national profile who are willing to lend that much public credence to the prosecutions against him. Day by day, hour by hour, Haley is inching closer to “the full Liz.”

And not a moment too soon, as her candidacy isn’t long for this world.

But she’s not going to get her wish. It’s far more likely that none of Trump’s criminal cases will be resolved before Election Day than that all of them will.

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  1. William Mitchelson

    The people know enough about the flaws of both major party nominees to choose between them. Lawfare is ballot manipulation and vote deprivation under these circumstances.

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  2. Wsampson

    the greatest country in the world is not us right now...funny how the way to make America great again is to end Trump and the current GOP, as they are the reason we suck

    in any event, the senate failed to convict - really the root cause
    DOJ too slow - we have a boy scout in the job when we needed a killer
    SC is incompetent at best, most likely compromised (as the Clarence and his wife stuff clearly show) - when decision after decision from Guns, to abortion, to citizens united, to this ignore the actual constitution, well, here we are

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  3. Cscott glider

    After blaming republican voters... I don't know how nick can stand idly by and not blame democratic voters because they voted for and continue to vote for the elected duffesses we have now. How is any intelligent person expected to react to that. But the question he asks is largely a dispirited exercise , a mere bubble and thought wave at our current politics from the wistful and wilful angst emanating from the dispatch.

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      BloggerBarbie

      They're not quite equivalent situations. The Democrats seem to be nominating people who, at least nominally, are not in the wild and crazy wing of the party. They're voting for safe and known, which isn't always the best. The GOP on the other hand, has actively chosen a bad person with a horrendous philosophy of government (if one can call, "I wanna be king!!!!!" a philosophy) to be their standard bearer.

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      1. Cscott glider

        Doesn't matter . I can't say either candidate would be good for the country. Nicks post was merely more of his same Dispatch meanderings.

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          BloggerBarbie

          If we were in a year where Trump and his populist BS weren't on the ballot, I'd say leave the top spot blank. Unfortunately, it's more important to defeat Trump--and to do so decisively--than it is to hope for perfection. If Biden is a little questionable on his memory... eh, his backup people are competent, if not inspiring, and there are still enough sane Dems to mostly block the absolutely bat-guano wing. I can't say the same for the GOP.

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    WKDawson

    Great and salient last line!

    To throw even more bleakness on that gloomy exit, it seems that Julius Caesar was very much liked by the people. The people gave over the republic to an emperor. That is part of 1 Samuel 8 too, the people wanted a king. Maybe there is nothing new under the sun. ... get that comfortable life, you want to keep it. ... I guess.

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  5. JG

    I agree that the electorate is mostly responsible for this mess, they want terrible candidates and that's what they are getting. I do think there needs to be some constitutional method to stop something like this, even if it is undemocratic, since that's essentially what the constitution is, telling us what we don't get to vote on. I also think that Biden and garland did this intentionally. They want it to seem that they are upset, but they have always known that a Trump rematch is their best chance of victory.

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    1. Jfan

      We do have constitutional methods, but those methods themselves depend on specific people, and they won't work if the people themselves are corrupted. For example, national political conventions have no legal authority to pick nominees; each state party committee informs the state government who its presidential candidates are. Almost always, the state parties respect the decisions of the national conventions. However, in 1968 the Alabama Democratic Party picked George Wallace as its nominee, in 1948 Strom Thurmond was, I think, the official Democratic candidate in Mississippi, and in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt was the official Republican nominee in several states, despite history books inaccurately describing that election as a three-way race. So in 2016, 2020, and 2024 Republican state officials could have shut down Trump. The problem is that they did not want to, and do not want to.

      For that matter the national conventions are also a safeguard, but the delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention chose to follow the primary binding rules when they could have voted for different rules. I spoke to a delegate myself -- a county chairman -- before the convention and she gave a mealy-mouthed excuse why she would support Trump's nomination, despite previously opposing him. No institution will work without men of good character in charge.

      I recall a line from The Lord of the Rings, describing the defense of Minas Tirith: "...men are better than gates, and no gate will endure against our Enemy if men desert it."

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    CJ

    "We have a virtuous civic tradition and an increasingly unvirtuous people, and something’s got to give."

    @Nick - nice Gibbon reference.

    I don't necessarily agree with most comparisons between the decline of Rome and the decline of our own nation, but I do think that a decline in civic virtue in favor of tribalism, greed, and ambition is a strong parallel.

    Civic virtue isn't "we all go to the same church" or "we all think the same" or "we all serve in the military" or "we all have the same family structure" but IT IS "the vast majority of us are capable of admitting who is a political arsonist even if it is one of 'our own', and avoid giving them real power".

    Our system requires civic virtue. We're losing more by the day. Something needs to give, and will.

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    1. Margaret Manning

      Also, intelligence and education. We’re doomed.

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  7. Brian.Klotz

    Love the closing line, Nick! Well done!

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  8. BizChuck

    Absolutely excellent, Mr. Catoggio.

    Bravo.

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  9. Joe1776

    January 6th 2021 Trump supposedly attempts this big coup right? Charges are not even brought until August of 2023?!? Please this obviously political. They sat on this for over 2 and a half years so that they could make headlines during the 2024 election. Now everything is a big rush!

    I hate Trump too, but it is obvious Biden's DOJ and Jack Smith are using the Justice system for political gain. That does not mean Trump should be president but it does mean the Justice department is being abused with Biden and Dems.

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    1. JG

      Agreed, I also think they want trump to be the candidate, they know he's the easiest to beat.

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      Wj

      > I hate Trump too

      I don't believe you.

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      1. Joe1776

        What can I say? Trump fans think if I say anything negative about Trump I must like Biden (who I also hate). Anti-Trumpers think if I do not subscribe to every negative view of Trump I must not hate him. There is plenty to hate about Trump even if you recognize he is the object of many political prosecutions.

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      2. Margaret Manning

        “Political” would have been arresting him and denying bond early in 2021. Instead, Garland let perfection get in his way.

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        1. Joe1776

          If they really thought he was attempting a violent insurrection he would have been arrested within a month. These cases where they need years to try to figure out some crime to charge him with are all BS. It is investigating the man instead of investigating a crime.

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    3. Balthazar

      I don't think this is right at all. Whatever they did was going to be political, so they waited until enough evidence was collected that it looked just the tiniest bit less political. They were screwed whatever they did - this is why the Founders feared demagogues. The lack of shame infected the American public and one by one our institutions will fail unless by some miracle the public starts caring about character again.

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        Kmregan7

        Exactly
        It would be called political no matter what.

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      2. Joe1776

        What evidence did they wait for to bring these charges over 2.5 years and 15 months before the next election?

        That they are now claiming the defense should not have any time to prepare is a complete joke.

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        1. Balthazar

          Here's a terrific rundown on why it took so long - very detailed - https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/. Key quote:

          "Whether a decision about Trump’s culpability for Jan. 6 could have come any earlier is unclear. The delays in examining that question began before Garland was even confirmed. Sherwin, senior Justice Department officials and Paul Abbate, the top deputy to FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, quashed a plan by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office to directly investigate Trump associates for any links to the riot, deeming it premature, according to five individuals familiar with the decision. Instead, they insisted on a methodical approach — focusing first on rioters and going up the ladder."

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        2. Balthazar

          https://january6th-benniethompson.house.gov/

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      3. Margaret Manning

        Do you mean that there was no interference with the critically important transfer of power? That’s one of the crimes, and prosecuting it and the subsequent frauds and attempted extortions was not politically motivated.

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        1. Joe1776

          What new evidence came up that justified waiting to bring the charges 15 months before the next presidential election? We basically had all the witnesses back in January and February of 2021 and the FBI could have investigated it. Instead the dems and the Biden admin made a political dog and pony show of it. Only after that fizzled are they now trying to force it into something so they will have news cycles about it during the election.

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          1. Balthazar

            To my point earlier - the administration didn't want to make it look any more political than necessary, so the Select Committee investigation uncovered a hell of a lot of video, email and text evidence that hadn't been in the public domain previously. You can't lightly prosecute a politician from the other party - it always smells bad - so it makes a ton of sense to me that Garland was waiting for the public to have some clarity about what actually happened. https://january6th-benniethompson.house.gov/

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    Steve Nystrom

    Would legislation granting that no convicted criminal could pardon himself, regardless of the position of the criminal, be Constitutional? If so, it would seem that both parties could agree to such a proposition. Or, if not the parties, the individual members of Congress would have a difficult time opposing such a concept, except by saying the court convicting the offender was wrong/corrupt, etc. The loss of confidence in our institutions is close to the point where that might happen, but it perhaps the members of Congress should bite that bullet now, before it gets even worse. Why hasn't anyone even tried to date?

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