The Democrats’ midterm victory was resounding, but it will not be enough to re-establish the rule of law in the United States.
asserted
it → re → States
The basic principle that even the president and his officials and cronies are subject to the law has been profoundly undermined by Donald Trump through unchecked ICE violence, apparently large-scale official corruption, and frequent defiance of the law.
asserted
president → undermine → law
Democratic-run congressional committees can investigate and expose lawlessness but cannot prosecute the criminality they uncover.
asserted
they → investigate → criminality
More is needed.
asserted
More → need → ?
Many people equate democracy with elections, but they are not enough.
asserted
they → equate → elections
A president can be elected, his policies can be publicized by the media and debated by the public, his legislative proposals can require the assent of a majority of lawmakers, but if the president holds himself above the law, a nation ceases to be a democracy.
asserted
nation → elect → law
The American system delegates many of the responsibilities for upholding the rule of law to an independent judiciary.
asserted
system → delegate → judiciary
If a president violates our rights, we can file a civil suit in court and hope a judge orders the president to stop.
asserted
judge → violate → president
But if the president or his allies engage in criminality, the American system has a built-in weakness.
asserted
system → engage → weakness
Some countries empower prosecutors to be independent, akin to a judge.
asserted
countries → empower → judge
It is headed by the attorney general, who is nominated by and serves at the pleasure of the president.
asserted
who → head → president
In other words, the president can decide which criminal conduct in his administration will be prosecuted – and which will not.
asserted
which → decide → administration
Because the president’s ability to control the Department of Justice could put him and his friends above the law, presidents traditionally have exercised that power with restraint.
uncertain
presidents → control → restraint
While setting broad priorities, most presidents deferred to the judgment of their attorney general.
asserted
presidents → set → general
Trump has weaponized his justice department, pursuing his perceived political enemies while neglecting crimes by his allies, who have often enjoyed effective impunity.
asserted
who → weaponize → impunity
They have little to fear from Trump’s politicized prosecutors.
asserted
They → have → prosecutors
The result has been increasingly brazen behavior – seemingly corrupt deals that few past officials would have dared to make, and arbitrary violence by ICE and others that is excused rather than investigated.
asserted
that → dare → ICE
The Rule of Law Project, a new civic group of which I am a founding board member, seeks to end that impunity.
asserted
I → found → impunity
We are hiring former federal prosecutors and FBI agents to investigate allegations of corruption and abuse by government officials and their accomplices that the current justice department is ignoring.
asserted
department → hire → that
We have attracted an extraordinary set of past public servants.
asserted
We → attract → servants
Many have served in the justice department, which has been decimated in the second Trump administration.
asserted
which → serve → administration
We don’t know their political views and haven’t asked.
asserted
We → know → views
What we know is that they are eager to continue their work in a different capacity.
asserted
they → know → capacity
The Rule of Law Project operates from the premise that criminal cases are more likely to be pursued if a prosecutor can be handed a case file that is largely ready for action.
asserted
that → operate → action
We will do the legwork of interviewing witnesses, collecting documents, and analyzing the results, with the aim of putting cases together while the evidence is fresh.
asserted
evidence → do → cases
We won’t have subpoena power, wiretaps, or a grand jury, but many cases can be built with witnesses who voluntarily cooperate.
asserted
who → have → witnesses
Indeed, in the most sensitive cases, cooperating witnesses are essential.
asserted
witnesses → cooperate → cases
Until we have a president and attorney general who believe in the rule of law, we plan to present these ready-made cases to state and local prosecutors, who are not subject to federal control.
asserted
who → have → control
Many would like to uphold the law but lack the investigative resources to take on these cases on their own.
asserted
Many → like → own
I have seen the power of such investigations in my global work.
asserted
I → see → work
For the mass atrocities under Syria’s former president Bashar al-Assad, for example, the international criminal court did not have jurisdiction, and Syrian prosecutors took instructions from the dictator.
asserted
prosecutors → have → dictator
The only option was national courts around the world exercising what is known as universal jurisdiction.
asserted
what → exercise → jurisdiction
But a typical prosecutor there would have no clue about how to prosecute torture, executions, or forced disappearances in Syria, let alone the resources to advance such a case.
asserted
prosecutor → have → case
That’s why, with the encouragement of Human Rights Watch, the UN general assembly established the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism (IIIM) for Syria.
asserted
assembly → ’ → Syria
A similar mechanism has been established to address atrocities by the military junta in Myanmar.
asserted
mechanism → establish → Myanmar
The IIIM, based in Geneva, is essentially a prosecutorial team without a court.
asserted
IIIM → base → court
They have no capacity to bring prosecutions, but they prepare them.
asserted
they → have → them
That way, when an abusive Syrian official shows up in a national jurisdiction, local prosecutors have a place to turn for the evidence they need.
asserted
they → show → evidence
That happened in the German city of Koblenz, where a former Syrian intelligence officer was convicted of crimes against humanity for overseeing a detention facility where torture was pervasive.
asserted
torture → happen → facility
He was sentenced to life in prison.
asserted
He → sentence → prison
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
