Constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe is still at it, doggedly urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to do something about Trump's attempt at a 2020 presidential coup — and to do it quickly. His latest urging is cowritten with former federal prosecutors Donald Ayer and Dennis Aftergut, for the NY Times. For those of you without a Times subscription and would like to read the gist of Tribe et al.'s op-ed, I give you this:
Almost a year after the insurrection, we have yet to see any clear indicators that [a Trump] investigation is underway, raising the alarming possibility that this administration may never bring charges against those ultimately responsible for the attack....
The legal path to investigate the leaders of the coup attempt is clear. The criminal code prohibits inciting an insurrection or 'giving aid or comfort' to those who do, as well as
conspiracy to forcibly 'prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States.' The code also makes it a crime to corruptly impede any official proceeding....
The president himself sat back for three hours while his chief of staff was barraged with messages from members of Congress and Fox News hosts pleading with him to have Mr. Trump call off the armed mob whose violent passion he had inflamed. That evidence ... is certainly enough to require a criminal investigation.
And yet there are no signs, at least in media reports, that the attorney general is building a case against these individuals — no interviews with top administration officials, no reports of attempts to persuade the foot soldiers to turn on the people who incited them to violence....
Even our proud tradition of not mimicking banana republics by allowing political winners to retaliate against losers must give way in the wake of violence perpetrated to thwart the peaceful transition of power.... Without forceful action to hold the wrongdoers to account, we will likely not resist what some retired generals see as a march to another insurrection in 2024 if Mr. Trump or another demagogue loses.
Tribe and his co-writers concede that Garland may be investigating "behind closed doors. Justice Department policy does not permit announcing investigations, absent exceptional circumstances." If this isn't one, I don't know what is. At any rate, the authors also note that if such an investigation were indeed in progress, there almost certainly would have been leaks to the media by now.
Yet, we hear of nothing. Meanwhile, it seems that time is slipping away — and wasted time is Mr. Trump's most powerful ally.