Very few would quibble with the fact that Lawrence Tribe, the famed Constitutional law scholar and professor emeritus at Harvard School of Law, is the most esteemed law professor alive. Tribe has never been shy in opining on the unconstitutionality of Trump’s actions but now Tribe is offering advice as to how Garland should proceed with possible criminal prosecutions.
More so than at any point to date, the hearings yesterday set forth an enterprise that looked identical to the modus operandi of an organized crime family, the crushing pressure, threats, endangerment, illegal conspiracies, and secrecy, all run from the top down, just like a mob operation. It is surely not accidental. Trump learned at the knee of famed mob lawyer Roy Cohn. Now, Tribe says prosecute Trump as an organized crime operation.
Former FBI Deputy Director for Counter Intelligence Frank Figliuzi noted the following:
“This is all looking increasingly like a kind of criminal enterprise,” says @FrankFigliuzzi1 after watching the J6 hearing. “Trump at the head, almost a capo of an organized crime family”
— Chris Jansing (@ChrisJansing) June 21, 2022
And Prof. Tribe, who taught Constitutional law to Merrick Garland (As well as Obama, Chief Justice Roberts, and Adam Schiff), emphasized the imperative:
Today’s hearing makes clearer than ever how deeply Trump and his acolytes have already damaged democracy at the ground level, driving honest election workers into hiding and creating a vacuum that fascists are in the process of filling. Only a clean sweep can hold back this tide.
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 21, 2022
And then the hammer:
Almost? This calls for RICO charges. https://t.co/g2H0WH3tAH
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 21, 2022
Tribe, ever the teacher, even went out of his way to offer up some of the co-conspirators that should be swept up in this organized crime operation:
The RNC Chairwoman is a co-conspirator with Trump, Eastman, Giuliani, Ellis, Chesebro, and a number of others ???????? https://t.co/RNOkhqmtOc
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) June 21, 2022
But Merrick Garland doesn’t have the luxury of prosecuting the entire matter in a vacuum and has to weigh whatever he might charge against the likelihood of making it stick and what a sufficient portion of the country finds palatable. Garland is in a unique position where certain charges may cause the country more damage than no charges.
To be sure, Garland has to charge Trump with something, that is clearer than ever. But RICO is a nebulous concept in the best of times. Garland is likely looking at a much cleaner, easier-to-prove felony, something that states for all of history that the rule of law will win out and even a president can be charged. But it is still more likely than not that Garland will charge simple fraud against the United States with the fake electors, obstruction of Congress, witness tampering, election tampering (Georgia), and the intriguing case of the top-secret files down in Florida, possibly the clearest case of all and, depending on the seriousness of what Trump took and why he took them, perhaps the most damningly traitorous.
Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.