Thought For The Day

.@DennisAftergut and @NormEisen:
"The true tragedy of Mueller Report was that Trump learned ... that he could get away with all the witness tampering he wanted. The DOJ should not make the same mistake twice. It should immediately open a witness tampering investigation." https://t.co/8nLdrKLl74

— George Conway🌻 (@gtconway3d) July 5, 2022

So, does law deter crime? Or punish criminals?

I think most ppl really have no idea how few crimes get reported, how few reported crimes produce arrests, the number of arrests that yield no prosecutions, and the percent of cases yielding lock-up time.

Chance a crime yields prison or jail? ~10% for violence, 5% for property. https://t.co/mCKEecZEfy pic.twitter.com/kyF5LHMmur

— John Pfaff (@JohnFPfaff) June 29, 2022

I’m assuming, arguendo, those statistics are correct. If so, fear of punishment is massively overrated, and the fact prisons create criminals (or that criminals, a la “Goodfellas,” don’t really care about prison) is massively under appreciated.

So most of us don’t steal or assault others because we don’t want to.  What keeps things in place is that we prefer civilization over chaos, order over disorder.

Does Trump think he “gets away “ with crimes? Probably not. Like most people in prison, he thinks he did nothing wrong. He will probably go to jail in Georgia insisting it was “a perfect call!” Trump never learned he could “get away with it.” Trump never considers anything he does is wrong. His argument now is that he was cheated, so anything he did, up to demanding he get to lead the mob into the Capitol, or telling witnesses not to betray him (as he sees it), is justified. The threat of punishment doesn’t deter him. The threat of punishment is the injustice. He’s just trying to get justice. Of course, for Trump “justice” is whatever outcome pleases him. Then again, I never knew a client who thought it was fair and just when they lost a case. Justice came only when they won.

So, should Trump be prosecuted? Absolutely. Trump was not charged by the Mueller report because the DOJ won’t prosecute a sitting President. Whatever Trump learned from that, it was a false lesson. He’s no longer President. He’s no longer protected. He’ll rage that any prosecution is weaponized politics. It’s not a legal defense, but it’s the reason the DOJ has to be sure of its case.

Does Trump think he got away with witness tampering before? Probably not; he probably thinks he snatched justice from the jaws of corruption. We have to prove justice comes from society.