Liz Cheney Nukes the Supreme Court--With an Urgent Warning About Trump [View all]
https://newrepublic.com/article/180896/liz-cheney-supreme-court-trump-urgent-warning
No paywall link
https://archive.li/XnSQB
If the Supreme Court takes its time in handing down a ruling on Donald Trumps demand for absolute immunity for insurrection-related crimes, voters may not know whether Trump is a convicted criminal before deciding whether to elect him to the most powerful position in the world.
Thats bad enough. But theres another dimension to all this thats gone underappreciated: Such a delay could also perversely reward Trump and his allies for the extensive cover-up they implemented after the insurrection failed by denying voters critical information about Trumps conduct on January 6, 2021. Even putting aside whether Trumps coup amounted to criminality, keeping voters in the dark throughout the election about that conduct would represent an appalling, next-level failure of accountability.
This idea emerges from Liz Cheneys new op-ed piece in The New York Times urging prompt action from the high court, which will hear arguments in the case this Thursday. Buried in the piece is an urgent warning whose importance is not immediately obvious. Cheney writes that a delay in this ruling could kick Trumps trial until after the election, which we know. But then Cheney says special counsel Jack Smith obtainedand presented to the grand jury that indicted Trumpinformation that the House committee that examined Jan. 6, on which she served as vice chair, could not gain access to. Cheney adds this:
There is little doubt that Mr. Trumps closest advisers also gave the federal grand jury minute-to-minute accounts of his malicious conduct on Jan. 6, describing how they repeatedly begged the president to instruct the violent rioters to leave our Capitol and how Mr. Trump refused for several hours to do so as he watched the attack on television. This historic testimony about a former presidents conduct is likely to remain secret until the special counsel presents his case at trial.
The idea that voters might be denied knowledge of Trumps minute-by-minute conduct during the attack might not, at first glance, seem alarming. Surely we know everything there is to know about Jan. 6 already, right?
*snip*