Facing indictment on multiple fronts — Georgia, Manhattan, and by the U.S. Department of Justice — disgraced former president Donald Trump gets closer each day to seeing his life ripped apart if and when he’s brought before the bar of justice.
But could indictment of the disgraced ex-president also result in an attack on the very system which charges Trump?
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow warned Monday evening on her show that if Trump is indicted, the country can expect some horrible blowback.
Citing the assault on democracy being seen in both Israel and Russia (most notably on the judicial system of both countries), Maddow noted:
“I think it is worth us watching it in other countries to learn the pattern and also recognize the signs that we are not even immune. In this country, our most prominent far-right leader has been subjected to multiple criminal and counterintelligence investigations by the FBI and Justice Department. And so, we have seen over the past several years that he has escalated, and escalated, and escalated further attacks on the Justice Department and the FBI to the point where not just him and his party considers the FBI to be an enemy and attack it at every turn.”
With the release of portions from a grand jury report in Georgia planned for Thursday, Maddow continued, we could be on the verge of seeing a full-scale assault on American democracy by Trump and his allies.
“Thursday this week, former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump is likely to understand he is no longer just facing scrutiny and investigation from the law enforcement agency, but is likely to find out this week that he is about to be under court scrutiny as well.”
All of this will challenge the country in ways we can only imagine, the host concluded.
“The bottom line is a big picture story for our democracy. Trump may not find himself being charged in Georgia, just as he may not find himself being charged in New York state. He might not find himself being charged in federal court where multiple grand juries are investigating him. It’s possible he will not face charges in any of these places. But if he is, the process of adjusting as a democracy is about to start now.
“And if you thought it was a bad look for our American version of ‘one of these guys’ to be attacking the press for challenging him, to be attacking the FBI and Justice Department for investigating him, then what is around the corner for our democracy if he is indicted? What is around the corner from us is if he is indicted is an attack on the specific system, the specific system that holds the power to indict him and potentially arrest him and put him in court and put them on trial.”
