Capital Crimes

With the latest installment of criminal indictments against former president and future defendant Donald J. Trump, we’ve got the latest round of hand-waving and excuse-making from his most loyal lickspittles.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — the loyal little Chester to Trump’s Spike — raced to run interference.

The refrain of his complaint is bizarre, since the indictment specifically charges Trump with trying to weaponize the Department of Justice for his own personal (and illegal) political schemes.

But the middle part, the whining about how unfair it is to try this case in Washington DC, is even weirder.

The crimes Trump’s charged with in the latest indictment center on the congressional certification of the 2020 election — which took place in Washington DC. And the indictment makes clear that those conspiracies led to the violent mob on January 6th, 2021 — which took place in Washington DC. And furthermore, at the time of these events, Trump’s residence was in the White House — which is in Washington DC.

I’m no fancy lawyer, but as others have noted, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is pretty clear on this question: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.”

So the complaint that crimes that took place in Washington DC at the urging of a defendant who then lived in Washington DC with ramifications in Washington DC shouldn’t be tried in Washington DC is legal nonsense.

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But there’s a political logic to it, of course.

Conservatives have long insisted that our nation’s capital doesn’t count — that the District of Columbia should be politically separate from the rest of the states and it’s people should be happy with unequal rights and representation in the nation’s affairs.

DeSantis’s tweet implies that there’s a difference between “Americans” and “Washington, DC” when — sit down for this, it’s a shocker — the hundreds of thousands of American citizens who reside Washington DC are actually Americans too.

Honest!