The role of Justice Department in the USA should be a lesson for us facing crisis of challenge to democracy, as to how bravely the independence of the judiciary to be protected as required by the Constitution.
The government is not the only body for exercising power under the Constitution. The judiciary is a constitutionally empowered independent body and for “protecting, preserving and defending” the judges of the Supreme Court are oath bound.
To be sure, Mr Trump is not an ordinary President, he is the President of the most powerful country in the world. Yet, the Attorney General and the other people of the Justice Department are fully conscious that they are also not nobody or sycophants to keep President pleased to save their job forgetting the trust the people through their Constitution imposed.
Responding to some critical observation, the US Attorney General bluntly retorted that he is fully in charge of the judiciary and no political considerations will be allowed to interfere with the justice system. In contrast, our Attorney General as well as the judiciary are easily subdued, in some cases voluntarily, in other cases for pressure or fear.
In America the Attorney General or the Director or investigating agency FBI proved they are not afraid of being sacked by the President. To them professional integrity and higher loyalty meaning loyalty to the country is not for sale.
This is how freedom and dignity of freedom is preserved. Freedom of the people is a collective responsibility of all in charge of the democratic institutions. The judiciary has a special responsibility to protect its independence and if they do not try to do it for fear of the government, then the judiciary will be liable for betraying the trust of the people.
It is not expected that the government will not like to usurp all the powers denying the judiciary its constitutional role as a check against such unconstitutional designs. That is exactly the justification for making the judiciary constitutionally independent not to bow down to the governments-another constitutional body to facilitate establishing monarchy.
The authors of the US Constitution wanted to allow the President to get on with his job without unnecessary distractions. But, they are very clear that the presidency should not be an elected monarchy. If a president does it, that does not make it legal. The constitutional problem that America is heading towards is that the Justice Department’s protocol not to prosecute sitting presidents dates back from another age, when a president could be expected to resign with a modicum of honour before any charge were drawn up, as Nixon did. That norm no longer applies. The unwritten convention now says in effect that, if his skin is thick enough, a president is indeed above the law.
President Trump blamed the Justice Department on Thursday for the investigations of illegalities surrounding his election victory. He dealt a severe back-to-back blows when Cohen pleaded guilty to the charge of illegal campaign finance and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort convicted of tax and bank fraud. Paul Manafort’s conviction was the first case sent to trial by the Special Prosecutor probing Russian meddling in the presidential election of Trump in 2016.
The President insisted he did nothing wrong after Cohen, his long time private lawyer and fixer, implicated him in the illicit hush money payments to two women who claimed Trump had an affairs with them.
Despite Trump’s defiant claim that impeaching him will have terrible consequences to the economy and many jobs will be lost he cannot avoid the legal consequences. It is most likely that a civil complaint will be filed before the Election Commission soon.
Impeachment is not beyond the possibility now that the Justice Department’s noose is tightening around the President’s neck. The President is becoming aware that things are not going his way. Now he is saying that if he is impeached then American economy will fall.
Unless President Trump’s mad rush to destroy everything most valued for the greatness of America is stopped there is no hope for America to remain a great example for the world of democracy and a fighter for human rights. His politics is so divisive and racist that there will be Americans fighting Americans. His policy of America first is to America isolated from the rest of the world to be just another country. His arrogance of a filthy rich does not fit well with the liberal politics of America.
