These days, it seems as if good judges and juries are the only ones protecting the Rule of Law/Democracy against scoundrels who aim to destroy it.
Case in point: Steve Bannon, that on-air “personality,” was just sentenced by Federal Judge Carl J. Nichols to four months in prison for disobeying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the insurrection attempt at our nation’s Capitol.
Bannon intends to appeal.
Judge Nichols, who is a Trump appointee, said this: “Others must be deterred from committing similar crimes.”
So true. Nowadays, there is virtually no accountability for political lawbreakers, who use byzantine delay tactics to keep justice at bay. These arrogant lawbreakers, their heads held high in sneering defiance, are often described as “flanked by lawyers” as they enter or leave courthouses.
Bannon, a former Trump advisor, has long expressed contempt for democracy and trumpets extremist authoritarians. He claimed the 2020 election was stolen, riling up his listeners, virtually inciting them to attack the Capitol.
Two years ago, Bannon and three accomplices were charged in a scheme in which they allegedly pocketed more than $1 million. In their pitch to gullible donors, they promised to pay for building “The Wall.”
Bannon still faces those fraud charges in New York. True to form, once again he will likely react with even more defiant bravado when he is “flanked by lawyers,” looking rumpled like he just woke up from a five-day bender.
Lock him up!
There were 60-plus legal challenges in the wake of the 2020 presidential election, claims by Trump supporters of widespread voting fraud. They were soundly dismissed, one after another, by federal judges, many of them Trump appointees. Once again, it was judges who saved the day.
Another scoundrel, “Infowars” liar Alex Jones, also took a Humpty-Dumpty fall recently, thanks to a verdict. He was ordered to pay nearly $1 billion to the families of the young students slaughtered by a gunman 12 years ago at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.
Jones is the vicious slanderer who claimed repeatedly that the massacre was fake – a hoax staged by actors in order to rouse support for gun laws. “Fake” and “hoax” are two of Trump’s pet words, oft repeated by his minions, like Jones, who is another loud election denier.
Repeatedly, using despicable words, he defamed those parents and children. His on-air filth led listeners to make threats against the grieving parents. Some even threatened to dig up the children’s graves to prove there are no bodies in them.
Jones was found guilty a few months ago of similar charges; yet another trial awaits him. Meantime, his followers keep sending him gobs of money. May he forever lose his grotesque “Infowars” conspiracy circus.
Lock him up!
Justice is so slow. Hopefully soon, judges/juries will put the brakes on other scoundrels like Roger Stone, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Michael (“Lock up Hillary!”) Flynn and their cult hero, Donald Trump. They all tried and still try to undermine Democracy/Rule of Law and replace it with an Autocracy.
On Oct. 18, former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen expressed a warning: “If Trump or any of his acolytes end up taking office or power, the America that we know, the Democracy that we have, will be gone, and we’ll never get it back.”
Lock them up!
