Teflon Don has dodged justice – it’s time for the rest of us to get on board
As eviscerating as the report from former Department of Justice prosecutor Jack Smith is, it is no surprise that the president-elect has emerged unscathed, writes Jon Sopel. Denying his mandate now won’t help anyone – least of all America
Who doesn’t love a proper bombshell report? And the report from the special counsel, Jack Smith, into Donald Trump’s attempt to illegally steal the 2020 election is utterly devastating – and will surely land with a thud.
Except it won’t. There will barely be a murmur. There will be the faintest of ripples. It will create a crater no bigger than a measly British pothole.
That is not to say Jack Smith’s findings aren’t important. They are. The 137-page report, from the former Department of Justice prosecutor – released after America had gone to bed last night – found the evidence was “sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial”. And of Trump’s behaviour, he says that he made “unprecedented efforts to unlawfully retain power”. There were “threats and encouragement of violence against his perceived opponents”. And “the throughline of all of Mr Trump’s criminal efforts was deceit – knowingly false claims of election fraud”.
It’s pungent stuff. It’s excoriating. It’s eviscerating. And having lived in Washington throughout that mad period in the run-up to, and the aftermath of, the election, I don’t doubt any of it for a second.
Just listen to the call he made to the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, where he more or less threatened the guy to “find” the votes he needed to win the state. It’s all there. Look again at the tweets where he went after his enemies and encouraged the events of January 6.
All but the willingly blind know what happened. How, having exhausted the legal and constitutional mechanisms to overturn Biden’s victory, he sought to maintain power “by other means”.
But – and I don’t mean this to sound glib – that was then and now is now. The arguments have been had – and, ultimately, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court took the view that they should not be deciding who the next American president should be; that was a matter for the American people. And in November, they reached a decision. Or, as Donald Trump in full caps-lock-mode put it on Truth Social immediately after the report was published: “THE VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN.”
They have. And you wonder what is to be gained by continuously relitigating the arguments that have torn America apart. It feels that the US has turned a corner. Though I am sure the people who hated Trump before the election still hate him today, he won fair and square in November in one of the greatest political comebacks of all time. He has won a mandate.
I do not doubt that the Jack Smith report is an important document and record of Trump’s discreditable attempts to cling to power after the 2020 election. But there is a danger that those who want to wave this report around – six days away from inauguration – are like the Japanese soldiers who hid in the dense Burmese jungle, unaware that the Second World War had ended.
It’s over. It’s done. Trump has emerged unscathed – even though many will think that is a travesty of justice.
But it’s 2025 and most of America has moved on. Exhausted by it all. Meta, which owns Facebook, is the most notable, with its abandonment of fact-checking – and saying its DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies are to be jettisoned as well.
A big chunk of corporate America is doing the same – you don’t want to seem “woke” with Trump back at the helm. Along the Mall next Monday, the Stars and Stripes will be fluttering. In board rooms, white flags. Even parts of the achingly liberal arts establishment are getting used to the idea.
For goodness sake, Village People are going to play at many of Trump’s inauguration events. And as they once sang: “Young man, put your pride on the shelf.” Though perhaps they had other things in mind...
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