Jan. 6, 2021, Take 2

After a disavowal by the U.S. Supreme Court, special counsel Jack Smith returned to the fray this week by filing a modified version of the indictment against former President Donald Trump for his attempt to reverse the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. It is the Jan. 6 trial, Take 2.

The criminal candidate was already convicted in New York on 34 counts linked to hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. He is desperately trying to overturn the conviction and delay sentencing until the Nov. 5 election.

The “relaunch” of the criminal trial related to the Capitol insurrection is a good euphemism. This trial is going nowhere between now and the election. Should Trump be elected, a realistic possibility that in itself is unreal considering his irredeemable, antidemocratic nature, would sound the death knell for the proceedings. His defeat would not mean an easy trial, however, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a ruling straddling the ideological frontier splitting conservative and progressive justices, the Supreme Court in July accorded the equivalent of a certificate of innocence to any president exercising their official duties — in this case Trump, rabble-rouser-in-chief of the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters. The highest court in the land ruled that the president benefits from near-total immunity for crimes committed in the exercise of official duties, opening a definitive door to an imperial presidency for past and future White House occupants.

Smith’s filing of a revised indictment is an attempt to save it from sinking while conforming to the Supreme Court prescription. The incriminating document has been reduced from 45 to 36 pages, while the four initial charges remain intact.

Nevertheless, there are major gaps in the narrative thread behind Trump’s efforts to block certification and flip the results of the election in his favor. Thus, the discreet calls to the Justice Department to investigate bogus investigations, or his pressuring of key states, no longer figure into the official Jan. 6 story. Conversations with White House staff and lawyers have fallen by the wayside as well. Now these are official acts committed by a president in the exercise of his duties.

This illustrates the damage the Supreme Court has done to the principle of checks and balances that is so vital to American democracy. Future presidents will be able to easily weaponize the Justice Department for political ends without being held accountable, except by the electorate.

The nonsensical Supreme Court ruling did not prevent Smith from preserving the heart of the prosecution’s theory. Trump’s lies and loud calls on social media for an uprising, his pressure on former Vice President Mike Pence, and his far-fetched attempts at replacing Georgia’s superdelegates with compliant supporters remain at the center of the case.

To a certain extent, conspiracy theories are never-ending with Trump and his supporters. Time and again they construct conspiracy theories about the stolen 2020 election and the Democrats’ widespread fraud. It is a persistent theme in Trumpist rhetoric: Reproach and impute to the adversary, without proof, those deeds and actions committed by one’s own camp.

In recent weeks, Trump again accused the “radical Democratic left” of having cheated and stolen the 2020 election. He also cast doubt on his ability to admit an eventual defeat … “because they cheat.” Confidence in the electoral system is the first victim of this insidious campaign.

This extraordinary deception took on unexpected dimensions with the crowning of Kamala Harris at the Democratic Convention. Trump is now evoking a coup that poor Joe Biden suffered given that he had been nominated as the candidate for the general election during the Democratic primaries. Whether the argument has substance or not, if Trump is defeated, he will find puppets in robes to plead the case that the transfer of Biden’s delegates to Harris on the floor of the Democratic National Convention was illegal.

Indeed, there is only one election that Trump is prepared to recognize: his own. One way or another, there will be a remake of Jan. 6 if he loses. In a country as polarized and divided as the United States in 2024, centrists and moderates have never been so important. The keys to democracy are in their hands.