It will set a disturbing precedent if Attorney General Merrick Garland prosecutes former president Donald Trump for alleged crimes. But set a worse precedent if Garland doesn’t.

1. 24/6/22, 10:28 AM
Opinion | It will be bad if Merrick Garland prosecutes Trump--and worse if he doesn't - The Washington Post
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/23/merrick-garland-needs-to-prosecute-trump/
Opinion It will be bad if Merrick
Garland prosecutes Trump — and
worse if he doesn’t
Eugene Robinson
Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien is seen on the screen in Washington, D.C., on June 13. (Jabin
Botsford/The Washington Post)
It will set a disturbing precedent if Attorney General Merrick Garland
prosecutes former president Donald Trump for alleged crimes. But I
believe it will set a worse precedent if Garland doesn’t.
There are obvious risks in a political system where criminal charges and
jail sentences can be used to achieve political ends.
All we need to do is look to South America, where former presidents
Carlos Menem of Argentina, Alberto Fujimori of Peru and Luiz Inácio Lula

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Opinion | It will be bad if Merrick Garland prosecutes Trump--and worse if he doesn't - The Washington Post
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da Silva of Brazil all were sentenced to prison terms for various crimes
including, in Fujimori’s case, the creation of a murderous right-wing death
squad. In each case, die-hard supporters believed their hero had been
railroaded for political purposes. Those prosecutions may have served
justice. But their sentences did nothing, at least in the short term, for unity
or stability.
And the prosecutions created an incentive for revenge. If Lula defeats
President Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s October election, will the Trump-like
Bolsonaro be put in the dock? Closer to home, would the next Republican
administration invent some reason to bring charges against President
Biden or his son Hunter?
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We should not rush to become that kind of country. But it might be even
more dangerous to live in the sort of nation where a president can violate
the law with absolute impunity. Once, we might have worried about a
leader who would risk shooting a man on Fifth Avenue. Now, we risk being
governed by a president who will try his best to negate the will of the
voters and remain in office despite having been dismissed.
Edward B. Foley: There is a better option to keep Trump out of office than
prosecution
The Jan. 6 House selectcommittee, in its riveting public hearings, has
made what strikes this non-lawyer as a compelling case that Trump
orchestrated a fraudulent and ultimately violent attempt to overturn the
result of the 2020 election.
Trump’s involvement in what amounted to a failed coup went far beyond
the incendiary speech on the Ellipse that launched the mob toward the
Capitol. And he persisted even though, as we now know, Trump was
repeatedly told that his claims of a “stolen election” were nonsense.

3. 24/6/22, 10:28 AM
Opinion | It will be bad if Merrick Garland prosecutes Trump--and worse if he doesn't - The Washington Post
Page 3 of 4
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/23/merrick-garland-needs-to-prosecute-trump/
Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager, told him beforehand that
a “red mirage” on election night would make it look as if Trump was
winning — but only temporarily. Trump’s attorney general, William P. Barr,
said Trump’s repeated claims of voter fraud were “completely bogus and
silly” — and told Trump to his face that the allegations were worthless.
Despite this, Trump went ahead not just with incendiary tweets, but with
phone calls to election officials in hotly contested states pressuring them
to “find” nonexistent Trump votes or decertify the election results or name
“alternate” slates of electors. He called supporters to D.C. for a climactic
confrontation on the day when Congress and the vice president would
formally certify Biden’s election. And he raised $250 million in donations
for an “election defense fund” that did not exist.
Although our democracy survived, this was far from a victimless crime.
Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a concussion while
defending the Capitol from the mob, told of slipping in blood. Arizona
House Speaker Rusty Bowers and Georgia election worker Shaye Moss
told the committee of the vicious and horrifying death threats they
received. Moss testified that a Trump supporter came to her
grandmother’s house in an attempt to make some sort of “citizens’ arrest.”
Garland has to decide whether there is evidence Trump committed one or
more crimes, whether prosecutors can prove his guilt beyond a
reasonable doubt and whether bringing charges against a former
president is simply unimaginable. The first two decisions will depend on
what the experienced prosecutors at the Justice Department conclude.
The last is up to him.
He will be pilloried either way. But he needs to understand that deciding
not to prosecute would send a clear message to future presidents: Do
whatever you like, and there will be no accountability. No consequences.
To a layman’s eyes and ears, the select committee has made a powerful

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Opinion | It will be bad if Merrick Garland prosecutes Trump--and worse if he doesn't - The Washington Post
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/23/merrick-garland-needs-to-prosecute-trump/
case for prosecution. We have not heard a defense from Trump — thanks
largely to the decision by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
not to name GOP members to the panel. And, of course, in any legal
proceeding Trump would be considered innocent until proven guilty.
But something that should be important to every American is already on
trial: the idea that we are all equal before the law, and equally responsible
to it.
The real test should be whether charges would be filed against Donald
Smith or Donald Jones, given the same facts. If the answer is yes, and we
are the country we say we are, charges must be filed against Donald
Trump as well.