The idea that justice delayed is justice denied goes back as far as the Old Testament. It appears in Magna Carta, and has been echoed by William Penn, British Prime Minister Gladstone, and Martin Luther King Jr. 

In Charles Dickens greatest novel, “Bleak House,” the legal case of Jarndyce v Jarndyce drags on for several generations until the last of the fortune in dispute has been consumed by endless legal fees, leaving nothing to the heirs.

Today, Donald Trump is trying to delay justice in numerous criminal cases long enough to win, reelection and thereby thwart justice by pardoning himself. Given his narcissistic nature, there’s no guaranteed he’d also pardon the six co-conspirators cited in the indictment brought by special prosecutor Jack Smith.

As in Jarndyce, the delay of justice has already lasted years. Trump lost reelection to Biden by 8 million votes on November 3, 2020, but as an incorrigible poor loser, he immediately began to promulgate the big lie, claiming the election had been stolen. 

By November 9, reporting had already debunked Trump’s fraudulent claims of corrupt elections in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and other swing states he needed to win, but hadn’t. The cyber security agency of Trump’s own government announced its analysis of the election on November 12, pronouncing it “the most secure election in US history.” 

Still Trump refused to concede the loss and to claim Biden had stolen the election when in fact Trump and his minions had used various illegal means to do exactly that. Biden was not scheduled to be sworn in until January 20, 2021. A few days before that, on January 6, the new Congress would need to certify the election and record the electoral votes of the states. 

As we all know, Trump and his co-conspirators incited an insurrection to disrupt the process, tried to persuade loyalists to count slates of fake electors rather than the genuine slates in swing states, and to persuade Vice President Pence to corruptly declare Trump, not Biden, the winner on January 6.  And yet despite this seditious assault on democracy, an electoral college vote of Biden 306 and Trump 232 was recorded and the transfer of power achieved in 2021.

In July of 2022, a bipartisan January 6 House Select Committee investigated Trump’s attempted coup and provided its findings on ten televised hearings where citizens could see the shape of the assault on democracy by a petty tyrant who refused to admit defeat. That was already two years since the plot to steal the vote began. 

By now, almost 600 insurrectionists have been tried and convicted of crimes. But Trump remains unpunished and unrepentant. Though the plot failed, the misinformation campaign continues to this day. He has brought bogus lawsuits objecting to the process that have been rejected by dozens of judges. And yet, almost 70% of Republicans still believe Biden lost the 2020 election.

As Trump runs for reelection, he faces trials in New York, Georgia, Florida, and Washington DC as he continues to spread disinformation and pays armies of attorneys to delay a reckoning that could put him in prison for as many as fifty years rather than in the White House for four more. 

The most damning case, recently brought by Jack Smith. may not be heard until 2024, but the felony counts include Conspiracy to Defraud the United States, Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding, and Conspiracy against the People’s Right to have their Votes Counted.  For the last 237 years our democratic republic has endured without suffering the overthrow of the government by force. From the time of ancient Greece and Rome such political coups have been commonplace and have continued to the present in Latin America, Europe, China, Russia. It took a Trump to subject America to the threat. 

Jack Smith has sought to do the right thing, but failed to indict on an adjacent statute, 18 USC 2385. But it more accurately describes Trump’s behavior beginning January 6, 2021 and continuing to the present: Criminal anarchy and Conspiracy to overthrow government by force, violence or unlawful means. In addition to incarceration, conviction of this statute carries with it the loss of citizenship and the right to hold any office of trust in the United States. Let justice be done.