Election 2024: Why Trump is on the verge of the presidency, and not in jail.
SlateSlate takes final stock of just how Not Normal this election was. I’ve ping-ponged between these two perspectives, but on the eve of this election, I think I figured out the answer: Over and over again the systems tasked with protecting the public from a dangerous criminal like Donald Trump opted for the route of appeasement, which is a big reason we are on the precipice of reelecting a man who threatens to end the system of democracy that Americans have known for nearly 60 years. Trump’s Department of Justice, under Attorney General William Barr, swept the entire matter under the rug without an investigation, and Trump’s allies in the Senate helped him evade a single witness testifying at trial. The D.C. Jan. 6th case seems to have been sufficiently derailed by the Supreme Court’s ruling granting Trump and future presidents virtually unchecked immunity for crimes they commit while in office. During deliberations, though, DOJ officials “acknowledged the political risks” and ultimately decided to go after low-level rioters before looking at anyone in Trump’s orbit.