Alan Zendell, August 28, 2023

“[F]or a federal prosecutor to suggest that we could go on trial in four months is not only absurd, it’s a violation of the oath to do justice.” That’s what John Lauro, Donald Trump’s new lead attorney in the January 6th insurrection case, told Judge Tanya Chutkan this morning. “This man’s liberty and life is at stake and he deserves an adequate representation,” he went on. That was the beginning of his argument to move Donald Trump’s trial date to sometime in 2026. Judge Chutkan promptly informed Lauro that while she understood the pressure of time, “you’re not getting two [more] years.”

Lauro stated what every other attorney has said: Donald Trump is not above the law, adding, “But neither is he below it.” He argued that in order for Trump to receive a fair trial, his attorneys would need three years to prepare his case. Lauro used the word “absurd,” but it applies more to his own argument than the prosecutor’s request for a speedy trial to be held in 2024, before Americans have to decide on whether Trump is fit to serve as president again.

Absurd would be allowing Trump to inject the process with chaos in an attempt to render the entire legal proceeding moot. Absurd would be using our laws and Constitution against themselves as only someone with millions of dollars to spend on his legal defense can do. If our laws are to apply equally to all of us, a defendant’s ability to raise a hundred million dollars from gullible donors based on the same lies that caused him to be indicted cannot be the determining factor in the case.

My favorite part of Lauro’s request was his reminder to Judge Chutkan that Trump’s life and reputation are at stake. First, I’d point out that Trump’s life is not at stake here, only his right to remain free and continue to be the most destructive force in American politics since the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. And his reputation? That seems pretty well sealed in concrete as a result of the public spectacle Trump has made of his life.

To say that Trump’s life is at stake while ignoring the lives, mostly of law enforcement officers, that were lost during the insurrection Trump incited is beyond absurd. To also ignore the reputations of everyone Trump has slandered and maligned, the women he has assaulted in various ways, and the thousands of people he has hurt, like the entire population of Atlantic City, New Jersey, throughout his life would make a travesty of our legal system. He is not on trial for those things now, but we can’t ever forget who he is, and those things define him.

We are repeatedly told that trying a former president on several dozen felony counts is unprecedented. The fact that such trials raise constitutional issues that affect every one of us, and that they are likely to establish new legal precedents makes these trials bigger than life and critical to our future as a nation. Add to the mix that the entire world will be watching to see if American justice chokes and gags, and we have what President Biden might refer to as the most important inflection point our nation has ever faced.

There is a clear line between justice as defined by the history of our badly tarnished legal system and common sense. The broader implication of our Constitution is that our government is charged with acting in the interest of the general welfare of all Americans. When prior precedents do not point to a clear path forward, and our laws have not been tested under comparable conditions, we must take a step back and ask what is in the best interests of the country. Our founders did a remarkable thing when they agreed on our Constitution, but they were neither prescient nor infallible. Not one of them could have conceived of someone like Donald Trump as president; thus, our system is not prepared to deal with him.

For our democracy to survive and prosper, the cases against Donald Trump must be brought to trial before the 2024 election, and before the Republican Party is so committed to Trump that we could effectively wind up with a one party election. When the only argument that can be made in Trump’s defense is that the system is rigged against him, that should be enough to convince most Americans that he’s not fit to hold any office again, and if it were legally possible to prevent, to ever participate in a political campaign again.

Trump is a deadly cancer eating away at America’s strength and vitality. Like any malignant tumor, the only way to deal with him is to excise him from system.