ℹ️ Skipped - page is already crawled
| Filter | Status | Condition | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| HTTP status | PASS | download_http_code = 200 | HTTP 200 |
| Age cutoff | PASS | download_stamp > now() - 6 MONTH | 0 months ago |
| History drop | PASS | isNull(history_drop_reason) | No drop reason |
| Spam/ban | PASS | fh_dont_index != 1 AND ml_spam_score = 0 | ml_spam_score=0 |
| Canonical | PASS | meta_canonical IS NULL OR = '' OR = src_unparsed | Not set |
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| URL | https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1008658/jan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites |
| Last Crawled | 2026-04-16 03:10:22 (1 day ago) |
| First Indexed | 2022-01-06 10:56:06 (4 years ago) |
| HTTP Status Code | 200 |
| Meta Title | Why hasn't Trump been prosecuted for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot? | The Week |
| Meta Description | Why we can't seem to punish Trump for the Capitol riot |
| Meta Canonical | null |
| Boilerpipe Text | One year ago today, a violent mob of right-wing extremists stormed the heart of American democracy trying to keep then-President
Donald Trump
in power after his election loss. Egged on by Trump and his top cronies, they seriously injured dozens of Capitol Police officers, disrupted the election certification, threatened the lives of congressional
Democrats
and then-Vice President Mike Pence, and wreaked havoc inside the Capitol itself.
As my colleague David Faris
writes
, there's presently little sign Democrats are capable of using their congressional majorities to patch the holes in the electoral framework Trump tried to exploit. But there's a much more obvious and straightforward step President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland could take: throwing Trump and his accomplices in jail.
Article continues below
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From The Week
Trump whipped up his putsch in public, right in front of live television cameras. The evidence necessary to bring charges has been visible for an entire year, yet Garland has done nothing.
Most observers expect
neither Trump nor any of his closest aides will face prosecution, because impunity is the rule for elites in this country. And if that expectation is correct, he or someone like him will try to seize power again, by fraud or force, and sooner or later will succeed.
For context, it may be worth considering the typical response to a failed putsch throughout history. It doesn't look like Garland's empty rhetoric.
When Lucius Sergius Catilina
attempted to overthrow
the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, he was hunted down by the military and killed along with all his followers. When Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland,
invaded England
to try to depose Henry IV, he was defeated, beheaded, and his head displayed on the
London
Bridge. When a group of army officers
attempted to overthrow
the French Republic in 1961, they were arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned (though some later had their sentences commuted).
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, all this happened because of the incumbent government's self-preservation instinct. States punish insurrectionists both as a signal that sedition won't be tolerated and to take specific dangerous figures out of play.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Historical exceptions to this practice only further the point: When Adolf Hitler attempted a putsch in 1923, for instance, he got off with a slap on the wrist thanks to a
sympathetic right-wing judge
. A decade later he was chancellor.
It's not hard to imagine what a normal country would do in response to something like Jan. 6. The putschists who stormed the Capitol would be prosecuted, of course, but the principal
organizers
would get the primary attention of law enforcement. We don't need medieval barbarities to deter sedition — enforcing existing laws would be just fine.
Trump,
his lawyer John Eastman
, Rudy Giuliani, the cadre of members of
Congress
who
helped the plot along
, and everyone else who gave speeches whipping up the crowd beforehand — every one of these would be charged with insurrection and seditious conspiracy under
18 U.S. Code § 2383-84
. The cases would be open-and-shut. Every other Republican who voted to overturn the election would be
kicked out of Congress
and permanently banned from holding any federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
But America is not a normal country. The low-level chumps, lunatics, and small business owners who made up the bulk of the putschists are being prosecuted, thus far mostly for
relatively minor crimes
like trespassing or disorderly conduct, though a few received
felony charges
. And Trump and other organizers are getting off scot-free.
Whatever Garland may say, it seems the federal law enforcement apparatus is unwilling or unable to consider Trump's mob as
real
criminals. And despite Garland's talk of accountability "at any level," it categorically refuses to prosecute the ringleaders. We saw last year how the Capitol Police brass
totally failed to prepare
for the putsch despite clear warnings and how numerous officers fraternized with the mob. Law enforcement generally, from police departments to the FBI to the judiciary, leans conservative.
Yet that only pushes the question back one level. Garland could easily set up a special unit to make sure key prosecutions aren't slow-walked, but he hasn't done it.
I see two main reasons: One, our political culture is saturated with a profound, knee-jerk chauvinism about the Constitution and America's supposed status as the land of freedom. Politicians are constantly flapping their jaws about how the U.S. is a "
city on a hill
" or "
the land of opportunity
," as if every other nation is somehow Tsarist
Russia
. "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible,"
said then-Sen. Barack Obama
in his famous 2004 DNC keynote address, as if America is the only place where someone with an immigrant parent could possibly get elected to the legislature (
it isn't, for the record
).
But two, the Constitution, together with the rest of the legal machinery underpinning the electoral system, is in reality an embarrassing, outdated piece of junk — the political equivalent of a rusting 100-year-old truck that will barely idle and can't into any gear except reverse. Well before the 2020 election, Barton Gellman
wrote an article
in
The Atlantic
carefully explaining how the Electoral Count Act (which nominally governs presidential transition process) is a vague, sloppy mess with multiple inconsistencies. The bizarre American tradition of allowing an election loser to remain president for two months meant that Trump had ample time to try to exploit this janky system to cling to power.
It was darkly amusing to watch American chauvinists ponderously refuse to grapple with this after Trump's initial refusal to concede defeat. Here's Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of
Lawfare
and an influential member of the Beltway elite, on November 19, 2020:
See more
Lots of countries are unjustly proud of their constitutions or political systems. But the real American exceptionalism is this: In no other country is there such a yawning abyss between the pompous self-satisfaction of the political culture and the grubby reality of the ancient, crumbling, jerry-rigged political institutions.
That, I submit, explains Garland's refusal to prosecute someone who is certain to try to seize power again if he can: Whenever something awful happens to demonstrate that the U.S. is just another ordinary country with many foibles, or that the political class is full of deranged criminals, the chauvinist instinct is to sweep it under the rug and deny anything is wrong.
Garland is so hypnotized by illusions of American greatness he can't believe what's happening right under his nose. The blow to American pride would be too strong and what it would reveal about America's fallen state too traumatizing.
Better to just keep playing make-believe until it's too late.
CORRECTION
:
A previous version of this story understated the charges people who entered the Capitol received. It has been corrected. We regret the error. |
| Markdown | 
[ The Week](https://theweek.com/)
US Edition
[ US](https://theweek.com/donald-trump/1008658/jan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites)
[ UK](https://theweek.com/uk)
[ SUBSCRIBE & SAVE Less than \$3 per week](https://subscribe.theweek.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-header-block)
×
Sign in
- View Profile
- Sign out
- [The Explainer](https://theweek.com/the-explainer)
- [The Week Recommends](https://theweek.com/the-week-recommends)
- [Newsletters](https://theweek.com/newsletters)
- [Cartoons](https://theweek.com/cartoons)
- [From the Magazine](https://usmagazine.theweek.com/t/storefront/storefront)
- More
- [The Week Junior](https://theweekjunior.com/?utm_source=theweek.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=theweekus_menu_link)
- [Student Offers](https://subscribe.theweek.com/pubs/W0/TWE/studentbeans_promo.jsp?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=285040)
- [Politics](https://theweek.com/politics)
- [World News](https://theweek.com/tag/world-news)
- [Business](https://theweek.com/business)
- [Health](https://theweek.com/health)
- [Science](https://theweek.com/science)
- [Food & Drink](https://theweek.com/culture-life/food-drink)
- [Travel](https://theweek.com/culture-life/travel)
- [Culture](https://theweek.com/culture-life)
- [History](https://theweek.com/history)
- [Personal Finance](https://theweek.com/personal-finance)
- [Puzzles](https://theweek.com/puzzles)
- [Photos](https://theweek.com/photos)
- [The Blend](https://theblendjournal.com/)
- [All Categories](https://theweek.com/digest/round-up/all-categories)
[Newsletter sign up Newsletter](https://theweek.com/newsletters)
Don't miss these
[ Politics Donald Trump: trouble in the heartlands](https://theweek.com/politics/donald-trump-cpac "Donald Trump: trouble in the heartlands")
[ Politics Trump probably can’t quit NATO but he can wreck it](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-nato-withdraw-article-five "Trump probably can’t quit NATO but he can wreck it")
[ Politics No Kings protests: Do they make a difference?](https://theweek.com/politics/no-kings-protests-do-they-make-a-difference "No Kings protests: Do they make a difference?")
[ Politics Supreme Court weighs birthright citizenship](https://theweek.com/politics/supreme-court-weighs-birthright-citizenship "Supreme Court weighs birthright citizenship")
[ Politics MAGA: Is Trump losing control of his base?](https://theweek.com/maga-trump-losing-control-of-his-base "MAGA: Is Trump losing control of his base?")
[ Politics Can anyone stop Donald Trump?](https://theweek.com/politics/can-anyone-stop-donald-trump "Can anyone stop Donald Trump?")
[ Crime The Epstein files: glimpses of a deeply disturbing world](https://theweek.com/crime/the-epstein-files-glimpses-of-a-deeply-disturbing-world "The Epstein files: glimpses of a deeply disturbing world")
[ Politics ‘People inside a community can be just as resistant to its complexity’](https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-ice-latinos-malls-nursing-homes-china "‘People inside a community can be just as resistant to its complexity’")
[ Politics What is Donald Trump's net worth?](https://theweek.com/politics/donald-trump-net-worth "What is Donald Trump's net worth?")
[ Politics The ‘mad king’: has Trump finally lost it?](https://theweek.com/politics/the-mad-king-has-trump-finally-lost-it "The ‘mad king’: has Trump finally lost it?")
[ Business Leadership: A conspicuous silence from CEOs](https://theweek.com/business/leadership-conspicuous-silence-us-ceos "Leadership: A conspicuous silence from CEOs")
[ Business Powell: The Fed’s last hope?](https://theweek.com/business/jerome-powell-feds-last-hope "Powell: The Fed’s last hope?")
[ Politics A running list of ICE deaths and shootings during Trump’s second term](https://theweek.com/politics/ice-deaths-shootings-trump-second-term-cbp-dhs "A running list of ICE deaths and shootings during Trump’s second term")
[ Politics ‘Long after that debt is paid, we keep sending the bill’](https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-prison-reform-pam-bondi-growth-germany-iran "‘Long after that debt is paid, we keep sending the bill’")
[ Politics Iran: Will MAGA forgive Trump’s ‘betrayal’?](https://theweek.com/politics/iran-maga-trump-betrayal "Iran: Will MAGA forgive Trump’s ‘betrayal’?")
1. [Home](https://theweek.com/)
2. [Politics](https://theweek.com/politics)
[Opinion](https://theweek.com/opinion)
# Jan. 6 shows impunity is the rule for American elites
Why we can't seem to punish Trump for the Capitol riot
By [Ryan Cooper](https://theweek.com/author/ryan-cooper)
published
January 6, 2022
(Image credit: Illustrated \| Getty Images, iStock)
Share
- Copy link
- [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fdonald-trump%2F1008658%2Fjan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites)
- [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Jan.+6+shows+impunity+is+the+rule+for+American+elites&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fdonald-trump%2F1008658%2Fjan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites)
- [Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fdonald-trump%2F1008658%2Fjan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites&title=Jan.+6+shows+impunity+is+the+rule+for+American+elites&source=theweek.com)
- [Whatsapp](whatsapp://send?text=Jan.+6+shows+impunity+is+the+rule+for+American+elites+https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fdonald-trump%2F1008658%2Fjan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites?fwa)
- [Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheweek.com%2Fdonald-trump%2F1008658%2Fjan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites&media=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net%2F3X55SDvD6aZwshMWe7ccw.jpg)
Share this article
Join the conversation
[Follow us](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=theweek.com)
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Newsletter
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
***
By signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/terms-conditions\/) and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/privacy-policy\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
You are now subscribed
Your newsletter sign-up was successful
***
An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
Subscribe to our newsletter
One year ago today, a violent mob of right-wing extremists stormed the heart of American democracy trying to keep then-President [Donald Trump](https://theweek.com/tag/donald-trump) in power after his election loss. Egged on by Trump and his top cronies, they seriously injured dozens of Capitol Police officers, disrupted the election certification, threatened the lives of congressional [Democrats](https://theweek.com/tag/democrats) and then-Vice President Mike Pence, and wreaked havoc inside the Capitol itself.
As my colleague David Faris [writes](https://theweek.com/politics/1008629/a-lost-year-for-american-democracy), there's presently little sign Democrats are capable of using their congressional majorities to patch the holes in the electoral framework Trump tried to exploit. But there's a much more obvious and straightforward step President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland could take: throwing Trump and his accomplices in jail.
In a speech on Wednesday, Garland [insisted](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/live-blog/ag-garland-speaks-about-jan-6-investigations?entry=1400031) he "remains committed to holding all Jan. 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible." If that's true, why have only the rabble had their days in court?
Article continues below
You may like
- [ Jan. 6: Ultimately a success?](https://theweek.com/politics/january-6-success)
- [ The price of forgiveness](https://theweek.com/politics/price-forgiveness-trump-pardons)
- [ Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-midterm-threat-dhs-democrats-2026)
## The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
[SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https://subscribe.theweek.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article)
## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
[Sign up](https://theweek.com/newsletters)
Latest Videos From The Week
Trump whipped up his putsch in public, right in front of live television cameras. The evidence necessary to bring charges has been visible for an entire year, yet Garland has done nothing. [Most observers expect](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-tragedy-of-jan-6-is-that-its-still-not-over?ref=home) neither Trump nor any of his closest aides will face prosecution, because impunity is the rule for elites in this country. And if that expectation is correct, he or someone like him will try to seize power again, by fraud or force, and sooner or later will succeed.
For context, it may be worth considering the typical response to a failed putsch throughout history. It doesn't look like Garland's empty rhetoric.
When Lucius Sergius Catilina [attempted to overthrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Catilinarian_conspiracy) the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, he was hunted down by the military and killed along with all his followers. When Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, [invaded England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bramham_Moor) to try to depose Henry IV, he was defeated, beheaded, and his head displayed on the [London](https://theweek.com/tag/london) Bridge. When a group of army officers [attempted to overthrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers_putsch_of_1961) the French Republic in 1961, they were arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned (though some later had their sentences commuted).
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, all this happened because of the incumbent government's self-preservation instinct. States punish insurrectionists both as a signal that sedition won't be tolerated and to take specific dangerous figures out of play.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
By signing up, you agree to our [Terms of services](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/terms-conditions\/) and acknowledge that you have read our [Privacy Notice](https:\/\/futureplc.com\/privacy-policy\/). You also agree to receive marketing emails from us that may include promotions from our trusted partners and sponsors, which you can unsubscribe from at any time.
Historical exceptions to this practice only further the point: When Adolf Hitler attempted a putsch in 1923, for instance, he got off with a slap on the wrist thanks to a [sympathetic right-wing judge](https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781447251156). A decade later he was chancellor.
It's not hard to imagine what a normal country would do in response to something like Jan. 6. The putschists who stormed the Capitol would be prosecuted, of course, but the principal *organizers* would get the primary attention of law enforcement. We don't need medieval barbarities to deter sedition — enforcing existing laws would be just fine.
Trump, [his lawyer John Eastman](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/read-eastman-memo/index.html), Rudy Giuliani, the cadre of members of [Congress](https://theweek.com/tag/congress) who [helped the plot along](https://theweek.com/feature/opinion/1006397/kick-insurrectionists-out-of-congress), and everyone else who gave speeches whipping up the crowd beforehand — every one of these would be charged with insurrection and seditious conspiracy under [18 U.S. Code § 2383-84](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383). The cases would be open-and-shut. Every other Republican who voted to overturn the election would be [kicked out of Congress](https://theweek.com/articles/954673/constitution-answer-seditious-members-congress) and permanently banned from holding any federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
What to read next
- [ Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?](https://theweek.com/politics/fulton-county-dress-rehearsal-election-theft)
- [ ICE: Now a lawless agency?](https://theweek.com/politics/ice-lawless-agency-dhs-tactics)
- [ How Democrats are turning DOJ lemons into partisan lemonade](https://theweek.com/politics/democrats-justice-department-bondi-trump)
But America is not a normal country. The low-level chumps, lunatics, and small business owners who made up the bulk of the putschists are being prosecuted, thus far mostly for [relatively minor crimes](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/04/jan-6-insurrection-sentencing-tracker-526091) like trespassing or disorderly conduct, though a few received [felony charges](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/11/09/rioters-charges-arrests-jan-6-insurrection). And Trump and other organizers are getting off scot-free.
Whatever Garland may say, it seems the federal law enforcement apparatus is unwilling or unable to consider Trump's mob as *real* criminals. And despite Garland's talk of accountability "at any level," it categorically refuses to prosecute the ringleaders. We saw last year how the Capitol Police brass [totally failed to prepare](https://theweek.com/articles/959192/stunning-failure-capitol-police) for the putsch despite clear warnings and how numerous officers fraternized with the mob. Law enforcement generally, from police departments to the FBI to the judiciary, leans conservative.
Yet that only pushes the question back one level. Garland could easily set up a special unit to make sure key prosecutions aren't slow-walked, but he hasn't done it.
I see two main reasons: One, our political culture is saturated with a profound, knee-jerk chauvinism about the Constitution and America's supposed status as the land of freedom. Politicians are constantly flapping their jaws about how the U.S. is a "[city on a hill](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4746361/shining-city-hill-ronald-reagan-1988-state-union-address)" or "[the land of opportunity](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/03/text/20070305-6.html)," as if every other nation is somehow Tsarist [Russia](https://theweek.com/tag/russia). "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible," [said then-Sen. Barack Obama](https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm) in his famous 2004 DNC keynote address, as if America is the only place where someone with an immigrant parent could possibly get elected to the legislature ([it isn't, for the record](https://www.theafricancourier.de/germany/living-in-germany/record-number-of-german-mps-with-migration-background-sit-in-berlin)).
But two, the Constitution, together with the rest of the legal machinery underpinning the electoral system, is in reality an embarrassing, outdated piece of junk — the political equivalent of a rusting 100-year-old truck that will barely idle and can't into any gear except reverse. Well before the 2020 election, Barton Gellman [wrote an article](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424) in *The Atlantic* carefully explaining how the Electoral Count Act (which nominally governs presidential transition process) is a vague, sloppy mess with multiple inconsistencies. The bizarre American tradition of allowing an election loser to remain president for two months meant that Trump had ample time to try to exploit this janky system to cling to power.
It was darkly amusing to watch American chauvinists ponderously refuse to grapple with this after Trump's initial refusal to concede defeat. Here's Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of *Lawfare* and an influential member of the Beltway elite, on November 19, 2020:
See more
Lots of countries are unjustly proud of their constitutions or political systems. But the real American exceptionalism is this: In no other country is there such a yawning abyss between the pompous self-satisfaction of the political culture and the grubby reality of the ancient, crumbling, jerry-rigged political institutions.
That, I submit, explains Garland's refusal to prosecute someone who is certain to try to seize power again if he can: Whenever something awful happens to demonstrate that the U.S. is just another ordinary country with many foibles, or that the political class is full of deranged criminals, the chauvinist instinct is to sweep it under the rug and deny anything is wrong.
Garland is so hypnotized by illusions of American greatness he can't believe what's happening right under his nose. The blow to American pride would be too strong and what it would reveal about America's fallen state too traumatizing.
Better to just keep playing make-believe until it's too late.
***CORRECTION*:** A previous version of this story understated the charges people who entered the Capitol received. It has been corrected. We regret the error.
Explore More
[Democrats](https://theweek.com/tag/democrats) [Donald Trump](https://theweek.com/tag/donald-trump)
[Ryan Cooper](https://theweek.com/author/ryan-cooper)
Social Links Navigation
Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at *TheWeek.com*. His work has appeared in the *Washington Monthly*, *The New Republic*, and the *Washington Post*.
Read more
[ Politics Jan. 6: Ultimately a success?](https://theweek.com/politics/january-6-success "Jan. 6: Ultimately a success?")
[ Politics The price of forgiveness](https://theweek.com/politics/price-forgiveness-trump-pardons "The price of forgiveness")
[ Politics Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-midterm-threat-dhs-democrats-2026 "Why are election experts taking Trump’s midterm threats seriously?")
[ Politics Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?](https://theweek.com/politics/fulton-county-dress-rehearsal-election-theft "Fulton County: A dress rehearsal for election theft?")
Latest in Politics
[ Politics Melania Trump denies Epstein ties](https://theweek.com/politics/melania-trump-denies-epstein-ties "Melania Trump denies Epstein ties")
[ Politics Hegseth must open Pentagon to reporters, judge rules](https://theweek.com/politics/hegseth-open-pentagon-reporters-judge "Hegseth must open Pentagon to reporters, judge rules")
[ Politics ‘Let’s build a future where sport belongs to everyone’](https://theweek.com/politics/instant-opinion-olympics-transgender-nuclear-africa-ai-newsroom "‘Let’s build a future where sport belongs to everyone’")
[ Politics The rift over Iran between Trump and conservative figures deepens](https://theweek.com/politics/trump-iran-maga-rift-carlson-jones-kelly "The rift over Iran between Trump and conservative figures deepens")
Latest in Opinion
[ Politics The end of empathy](https://theweek.com/politics/the-end-of-empathy "The end of empathy")
[ Politics Refusing to submit](https://theweek.com/politics/refusing-to-submit "Refusing to submit")
[ Politics The Project 2025 presidency](https://theweek.com/politics/the-project-2025-presidency "The Project 2025 presidency")
[ Politics Born this way](https://theweek.com/politics/born-this-way "Born this way")
- [About Us](https://theweek.com/about-us)
- [Contact Future's experts](https://futureplc.com/contact/)
- [Terms and Conditions](https://futureplc.com/terms-conditions/)
- [Privacy Policy](https://futureplc.com/privacy-policy/)
- [Cookie Policy](https://futureplc.com/cookies-policy/)
- [Advertise With Us](https://go.future-advertising.com/The-Week-Media-Kit.html)
- [FAQ](https://theweek.com/faq)
- [Do not sell or share my personal information](https://theweek.com/privacy-portal)
[ Add as a preferred source on Google](https://google.com/preferences/source?q=theweek.com)
The Week is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. [Visit our corporate site](https://futureplc.com/).
© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036. |
| Readable Markdown | One year ago today, a violent mob of right-wing extremists stormed the heart of American democracy trying to keep then-President [Donald Trump](https://theweek.com/tag/donald-trump) in power after his election loss. Egged on by Trump and his top cronies, they seriously injured dozens of Capitol Police officers, disrupted the election certification, threatened the lives of congressional [Democrats](https://theweek.com/tag/democrats) and then-Vice President Mike Pence, and wreaked havoc inside the Capitol itself.
As my colleague David Faris [writes](https://theweek.com/politics/1008629/a-lost-year-for-american-democracy), there's presently little sign Democrats are capable of using their congressional majorities to patch the holes in the electoral framework Trump tried to exploit. But there's a much more obvious and straightforward step President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland could take: throwing Trump and his accomplices in jail.
Article continues below
## The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
[SUBSCRIBE & SAVE](https://subscribe.theweek.com/servlet/OrdersGateway?cds_mag_code=TWE&cds_page_id=275740&cds_response_key=I4BRBKSW1&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=theweek.com&utm_campaign=wku-all-digital_referral-202401-sub-none-fbk24&utm_content=us-in-article)
## Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Latest Videos From The Week
Trump whipped up his putsch in public, right in front of live television cameras. The evidence necessary to bring charges has been visible for an entire year, yet Garland has done nothing. [Most observers expect](https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-real-tragedy-of-jan-6-is-that-its-still-not-over?ref=home) neither Trump nor any of his closest aides will face prosecution, because impunity is the rule for elites in this country. And if that expectation is correct, he or someone like him will try to seize power again, by fraud or force, and sooner or later will succeed.
For context, it may be worth considering the typical response to a failed putsch throughout history. It doesn't look like Garland's empty rhetoric.
When Lucius Sergius Catilina [attempted to overthrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Catilinarian_conspiracy) the Roman Republic in 63 BCE, he was hunted down by the military and killed along with all his followers. When Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, [invaded England](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Bramham_Moor) to try to depose Henry IV, he was defeated, beheaded, and his head displayed on the [London](https://theweek.com/tag/london) Bridge. When a group of army officers [attempted to overthrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algiers_putsch_of_1961) the French Republic in 1961, they were arrested, prosecuted, and imprisoned (though some later had their sentences commuted).
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, all this happened because of the incumbent government's self-preservation instinct. States punish insurrectionists both as a signal that sedition won't be tolerated and to take specific dangerous figures out of play.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Historical exceptions to this practice only further the point: When Adolf Hitler attempted a putsch in 1923, for instance, he got off with a slap on the wrist thanks to a [sympathetic right-wing judge](https://www.panmacmillan.com.au/9781447251156). A decade later he was chancellor.
It's not hard to imagine what a normal country would do in response to something like Jan. 6. The putschists who stormed the Capitol would be prosecuted, of course, but the principal *organizers* would get the primary attention of law enforcement. We don't need medieval barbarities to deter sedition — enforcing existing laws would be just fine.
Trump, [his lawyer John Eastman](https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/21/politics/read-eastman-memo/index.html), Rudy Giuliani, the cadre of members of [Congress](https://theweek.com/tag/congress) who [helped the plot along](https://theweek.com/feature/opinion/1006397/kick-insurrectionists-out-of-congress), and everyone else who gave speeches whipping up the crowd beforehand — every one of these would be charged with insurrection and seditious conspiracy under [18 U.S. Code § 2383-84](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2383). The cases would be open-and-shut. Every other Republican who voted to overturn the election would be [kicked out of Congress](https://theweek.com/articles/954673/constitution-answer-seditious-members-congress) and permanently banned from holding any federal office under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
But America is not a normal country. The low-level chumps, lunatics, and small business owners who made up the bulk of the putschists are being prosecuted, thus far mostly for [relatively minor crimes](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/04/jan-6-insurrection-sentencing-tracker-526091) like trespassing or disorderly conduct, though a few received [felony charges](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/11/09/rioters-charges-arrests-jan-6-insurrection). And Trump and other organizers are getting off scot-free.
Whatever Garland may say, it seems the federal law enforcement apparatus is unwilling or unable to consider Trump's mob as *real* criminals. And despite Garland's talk of accountability "at any level," it categorically refuses to prosecute the ringleaders. We saw last year how the Capitol Police brass [totally failed to prepare](https://theweek.com/articles/959192/stunning-failure-capitol-police) for the putsch despite clear warnings and how numerous officers fraternized with the mob. Law enforcement generally, from police departments to the FBI to the judiciary, leans conservative.
Yet that only pushes the question back one level. Garland could easily set up a special unit to make sure key prosecutions aren't slow-walked, but he hasn't done it.
I see two main reasons: One, our political culture is saturated with a profound, knee-jerk chauvinism about the Constitution and America's supposed status as the land of freedom. Politicians are constantly flapping their jaws about how the U.S. is a "[city on a hill](https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4746361/shining-city-hill-ronald-reagan-1988-state-union-address)" or "[the land of opportunity](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2007/03/text/20070305-6.html)," as if every other nation is somehow Tsarist [Russia](https://theweek.com/tag/russia). "In no other country on Earth is my story even possible," [said then-Sen. Barack Obama](https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/convention2004/barackobama2004dnc.htm) in his famous 2004 DNC keynote address, as if America is the only place where someone with an immigrant parent could possibly get elected to the legislature ([it isn't, for the record](https://www.theafricancourier.de/germany/living-in-germany/record-number-of-german-mps-with-migration-background-sit-in-berlin)).
But two, the Constitution, together with the rest of the legal machinery underpinning the electoral system, is in reality an embarrassing, outdated piece of junk — the political equivalent of a rusting 100-year-old truck that will barely idle and can't into any gear except reverse. Well before the 2020 election, Barton Gellman [wrote an article](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/11/what-if-trump-refuses-concede/616424) in *The Atlantic* carefully explaining how the Electoral Count Act (which nominally governs presidential transition process) is a vague, sloppy mess with multiple inconsistencies. The bizarre American tradition of allowing an election loser to remain president for two months meant that Trump had ample time to try to exploit this janky system to cling to power.
It was darkly amusing to watch American chauvinists ponderously refuse to grapple with this after Trump's initial refusal to concede defeat. Here's Benjamin Wittes, editor-in-chief of *Lawfare* and an influential member of the Beltway elite, on November 19, 2020:
See more
Lots of countries are unjustly proud of their constitutions or political systems. But the real American exceptionalism is this: In no other country is there such a yawning abyss between the pompous self-satisfaction of the political culture and the grubby reality of the ancient, crumbling, jerry-rigged political institutions.
That, I submit, explains Garland's refusal to prosecute someone who is certain to try to seize power again if he can: Whenever something awful happens to demonstrate that the U.S. is just another ordinary country with many foibles, or that the political class is full of deranged criminals, the chauvinist instinct is to sweep it under the rug and deny anything is wrong.
Garland is so hypnotized by illusions of American greatness he can't believe what's happening right under his nose. The blow to American pride would be too strong and what it would reveal about America's fallen state too traumatizing.
Better to just keep playing make-believe until it's too late.
***CORRECTION*:** A previous version of this story understated the charges people who entered the Capitol received. It has been corrected. We regret the error. |
| Shard | 139 (laksa) |
| Root Hash | 5471547289642633339 |
| Unparsed URL | com,theweek!/donald-trump/1008658/jan-6-shows-impunity-is-the-rule-for-american-elites s443 |