Crossing the Rubicon

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist

Louisiana’s GOP congresspeople were all quick to condemn the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid.

Steve Scalise called it “a brazen weaponization of the FBI by Biden’s DOJ against his political opponent — while giving their political allies free passes.” Clay Higgins declared it a “political hit job, designed to stop President Trump from seeking the White House in 2024.” Julia Letlow exclaimed “a sad day for our Republic.” And, Mike Johnson wrote that the “raid on the former President’s home in the middle of an election season looks like another egregious and unprecedented abuse of power.”

The political fallout of the Mar-a-Lago raid left even some of the most ardent “Never Trumpers” wondering, “If they don’t find something really serious, the FBI may have just elected Donald Trump to another four years in the White House.” However, Trump’s subsequent tweeting that the FBI “planted evidence” of him leaking nuclear secrets indicates that it could be THAT serious. After all, does anyone believe that an Attorney General — as experienced in historical precedent as Merrick Garland —would break two centuries of executive privilege tradition lightly? Evidence suggests that this AG would only investigate a president of the opposition party if the FBI searched for evidence of a betrayal even more important than the aforementioned precedent.

It’s reasonable logic to suspect that a lawyer and jurist who nearly won a seat on the Supreme Court would act so prudently; that he would understand the stakes. The very fact that on August 11, AG Garland petitioned the U.S. District Court of Southern Florida to unseal the warrant, and that mere hours prior, conservative journalist John Solomon revealed that Trump defied an FBI subpoena for months, leaves one question: what was really in that safe?

The former president stated late on August 11 that he had no objection to releasing the warrant to the public. However, by early the next morning, Trump ranted, “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more…Same sleazy people involved. Why wouldn’t the FBI allow the inspection of areas at Mar-a-Lago with our lawyer’s, or others, present. Made them wait outside in the heat, wouldn’t let them get even close – said ‘ABSOLUTELY NOT.’ Planting information anyone? Reminds me of a Christofer (sic) Steele Dossier!”

His tweet may have been in response to a Washington Post report revealing that the FBI was looking for “classified documents relating to nuclear weapons,” Of course, it is worth remembering two facts. During the 2016 election, Trump repeatedly told reporters (and Hillary Clinton), “Anyone being investigated by the FBI is not qualified to be the President of the United States.” He said this on six separate occasions— on August 3, 2016, September 7, 2016, October 15, 2016, October 20, 2016, October 21, 2016, October 25, 2016 and October 30, 2016.

Moreover, Trump himself could have released this warrant at any time since August 6. He never needed to petition a federal judge or seek agreement from the Justice Department. Yet, he chose silence — even as his supporters were calling for the warrant to be released. Also worth noting, less than two days after the Mar-a-Lago raid, Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment multiple times in a deposition by the Manhattan District Attorney‘s office. That hardly stands as investigatory cooperation, even though Trump possesses that constitutional right. Still, his silence plagues the question: could Trump be hiding something that terrifying?

Nevertheless, an important precedent has been broken. Americans used to pride themselves on the fact that only Third World “banana republics” launched criminal investigations upon the presidential predecessors of the opposing party. GOP Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened to call impeachment hearings against the attorney general for that reason alone. It seems, though, the Trump’s own hysteria at what the FBI may have discovered makes Garland’s decision to cross the constitutional river of no return all the more understandable.

Republicans, who go to the polls in Wyoming on Tuesday, August 16, bent on voting out Congresswoman Elizabeth Cheney, should think twice before unelecting the one GOP member running for reelection suggesting this exact terrifying prospect. The Republican Party might need someone to pick up the pieces if Donald Trump falls.

Nevertheless, the pressure on Merrick Garland is immense. As the Wall Street Journal put it on last Thursday, “If anything, a perceived political persecution of Mr. Trump could help him to a second term. And he would be even more unrestrained as the 47th president than he was as the 45th. A second Trump administration wouldn’t have the caliber of grown-ups who signed up for the first tour. Mr. Garland’s raid has made even the highest political figures fair prosecutorial game, and the media’s new standard is that the department can’t be questioned as it goes about ensuring “no one is above the law.” Let’s see how that holds when a future Republican Justice Department starts raiding the homes of Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, James Comey and John Brennan.”

In 49 BC, Julius Caesar and his army crossed Italy’s border at the Rubicon River to seize power unconstitutionally. If last week’s allegations center around something as serious as leaking atomic secrets, even some of Trump’s defenders may come to believe that Merrick Garland crossed his proverbially uncrossable border in order to prevent another Caesar from ripping the fabric of our Constitution asunder. After all, the oath states “protect and defend…against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

This article originally published in the August 15, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.