Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

The indictment of former President Donald J. Trump for his role in events leading up to January 6, 2021 will be viewed by many from a partisan viewpoint. Democrats are probably thinking “it’s about time,” while Republicans may see this as a partisan effort by a Democratic administration to damage Trump’s bid for reelection.

The indictment is interesting in that it doesn’t deal with the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 but with the attempts by the President and his team to do whatever it took to overturn vote counts in seven states that Trump thought he had won and the Electoral College ballot count.

The indictment points out that Trump was within his rights to complain about fraud, lie about fraud and otherwise express his views. However, he crossed a line when he sought to pressure states into changing vote totals to show he was a winner even when he was not. It further alleges he crossed another line trying to sabotage the Electoral College vote count.

Having accurate vote counts that the citizens can believe is a fundamental part of our democracy. What separates the United States from a dictatorship is that voters cast ballots which are fairly counted. The results may not be what some voters want but we proceed ahead anyway knowing that the result was what the majority of voters wanted.

The indictment points out that within days of the November election President Trump was told by aides and others that he had not secured enough votes to be reelected. Allegations of fraud were made and over 60 lawsuits filed to overturn, delay or cast doubt on election returns in seven states in particular that Trump won in 2016 but failed to win in 2020. All went nowhere because lawyers bringing the suits could not produce evidence of fraud.

Some of those states had Republican administrations and as they went back and looked at their voting systems they came to the conclusion that the vote counts were correct. There were not enough errors in any state to have any effect on the election outcome.

Undeterred by losses in the legal system, President Trump tried other means that are the cause for the indictment. The indictment charges him with conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding (the electoral college vote count), conspiracy obstruction of an attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and stop the peaceful transition of power.

The indictment is interesting reading and I would encourage everyone to read it. It is 48 pages long but much of it is triple spaced so it isn’t as long as it may seem. It is very specific about what happened and when. The same applies to the classified documents case, that indictment is longer but the same thing about spacing implies. Both are available online, just Google them.

Talking heads on both sides of the case will talk about different aspects of the case. That’s why reading the indictment is important. Make sure you aren’t being fed a bunch of baloney no matter which side you may be on.

An indictment is just that, it is the prosecution’s case that has, in this case, been run before a grand jury. A grand jury of citizens, usually between 16 and 23 people, can decide whether the prosecution has enough evidence to proceed with a trial.

It is at the trial that former President Trump can enter his arguments about why the prosecution is wrong in its interpretation of the facts. Then a jury decides the case unless the President decides he wants to have a bench trial with a judge making the decision.

The fact this case will drag into an election year adds a whole extra series of complications to that election. Frankly it would be best for the nation to have this out of the way before the election so we could talk about issues facing this country. And it might be better for Mr. Trump as well. If the former president is found innocent, as he claims, his appeal to many might be broader. If not, the voters have a right to know before election day.