Ljustice gave way in the United States even before Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office. By calling for a halt to prosecutions in two federal investigations whose legitimacy was beyond a shadow of a doubt – the role of the former president in the assault of his supporters against the Capitol on January 6, 2021, to prevent the accession to power of Joe Biden, and the stubborn retention of classified documents after his departure from power – special prosecutor Jack Smith took note of a political balance of power that had become untenable.
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The rule of law will suffer for two reasons. On the one hand, this defeat of the obligation to account places the citizen Donald Trump – now president-elect – above the law for past facts. On the other hand, the continuation of these investigations would also have made it possible to clarify the scope of the immunity granted on 1is July by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court to a tenant of the White House in the exercise of his functions. The president of the highest judicial body in the United States, John Roberts, assured that it could not be total. In the absence of clarification, immunity, which Donald Trump only understands in its maximalist form, could well rhyme with impunity for future acts.
The composition of the future administration clearly indicates what part of its function will be: ensuring the protection of the Republican. The fate of the federal police, scrutinized for the search of his Florida residence, in 2022, will be resolved by this yardstick. Nearly eight years ago, he had an unquenchable grudge against his Minister of Justice Jeff Sessions, the first Republican senator to join him, for not having played this role of shield. By placing at the head of the Department of Justice the lawyers paid by Republican donations who fought for him in court, he dispelled any ambiguity, if any remained.
The Ukraine question
The transition is already marked by the desire to free ourselves from standards. The opacity of its financing, highlighted by the New York Timestestifies to this. The president-elect renounced the federal funds provided in order to retain the possibility of receiving an unlimited amount of donations from private financial interests certainly driven by considerations other than the common good, without having to make public the names of the donors.
The impunity that the transition suggests will not only affect American internal affairs. The choice of Fox News reporter Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon is another potential example of deregulation. In this case, a possible renunciation of the constraints of the laws of war, which would extend beyond the borders of the United States, if the Senate does not obstruct this nomination.
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