Alan Zendell, June 10, 2023

The federal indictment against former president Donald Trump that was made public, yesterday, by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith signaled the beginning of the end game for the most critical test our democracy has faced since the Civil War. Trump himself said, repeatedly, during his 2016 presidential campaign that no one is above the law, as he went on to promise voters that his administration would enforce every national security law in the U. S. Code indiscriminately.

Trump’s critics have long predicted that his love of television cameras and social media, his lack of respect for truth, and his inability to control his narcissistic personality disorder would eventually be his undoing. Demagogues like Trump survive by keeping their supporters angry, convincing them that everyone but him is corrupt and out to get them. They all have the same dangerously charismatic ability to lie convincingly without flinching.

From day one, historians and responsible journalists have credibly compared Trump’s rise to power with Adolf Hitler’s. Hitler and his Nazi Party came to power by promulgating The Big Lie that their country was being undermined and sabotaged by foreigners and immigrants, notably Jews. They succeeded in dismantling the free press and the Constitution of the Weimar Republic by exacerbating the terrible economic conditions and unemployment that followed the First World War.

We defeated the Fascists, but not before they came dangerously close to destroying Europe and isolating America from the rest of the world. Yet, only a decade later, prominent American politicians were using the same tactics in their paranoid obsession to root out Communist conspirators. The playbook for that effort was the brainchild of the infamous Roy Cohn, who served as the Senate’s prosecutor for the Communist witch hunt of the 1950s. It used baseless lies and insinuations, fear-mongering in the media, and a hate-based alternate reality to supplant facts.

Cohn went on to become consigliere for some of the worst organized crime families of the post-war era, which put him in contact with a young, morally challenged businessman named Donald Trump. He explained to Trump how the Fascist playbook that brought Hitler to power and kept our most violent criminals out of prison applied to him. Trump had always gravitated toward lies, denials, and intimidation, but Cohn shaped them into a coherent philosophy.

Such tactics only succeed when people of principle succumb. The economic chaos in Germany in the 1930s enabled the Nazis to overthrow their nation’s justice system, but here in America, we have committed people in federal law enforcement who took down everyone from Al Capone to Trump’s friend, John Gotte, including Cohn, who was disbarred and died in federal prison.

That brings us full circle to the Trump indictment. The false 2016 promises about enforcing all defense and security laws stemmed from Trump’s attacks on Hilary Clinton’s sloppy use of a private email server. His rants about perceived security breaches caused former FBI Director James Comey to launch an investigation of Clinton’s actions only a month before the 2016 election, which, despite finding no evidence of either unlawful intent or harm, was instrumental in enabling Trump to defeat her. That was the same FBI Trump’s defenders are accusing of being out to get him and serving as a political foil of the Biden administration.

To distance the charges against Trump from politics, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to direct the investigation which resulted in yesterday’s thirty-seven count indictment. The indictment resulted from the deliberations of a grand jury comprised of average Americans residing in south Florida that was randomly drawn from a population that won Trump a majority in Florida in 2016 and 2020. In that context, it’s impossible to defend Trump’s charge that the indictments are solely motivated by an attempt to keep him from winning in 2024. Based on what the investigation found, the prosecutors clearly believe Trump is unfit to serve as president again, but that’s because of his criminal behavior.

Trump’s attitude, words, and behavior clearly mimic those of the dictators and crime bosses he has worshipped all his life. The people prosecuting the case against Trump understand that they will be attacked and lied about. Their lives will be scrutinized and dragged through the mud, and there are already signs that Trump supporters are attempting to foment a second insurrection outside the courthouse where Trump will be arraigned. But make no mistake. The people attempting to bring Trump to justice are heroes on the front lines of the battle to preserve our Constitution and our nation. If Trump is allowed to escape punishment, if even worse, he somehow regains the presidency, that will portend a dark future for America.