For Democrats and Due Process, It’s Now or Never. By Augustus Howard

The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago represents the logical next step in the left’s ongoing effort to destroy Donald Trump. The raid also evinces Democrats’ spiral of worry: A successful Trump return, once unthinkable to them, is looking more possible by the day. To stop it, Democrats and their anti-Trump Republican allies are prepared to shred every last norm of American due process.

Consider the January 6 Committee hearings – a one-sided show trial that, instead of “defending democracy,” in fact subverts due process and undermines American politics and justice alike. Why did Nancy Pelosi throw precedent to the wind, denying the minority party the right to seat its own chosen members on the committee? Why does the committee showcase select witnesses and cherry-picked testimony in carefully choreographed, professionally-produced television specials? And at the same time, why does it bury other testimony, potentially unhelpful to the chosen narrative, far from the cameras?

If Pelosi and the Democrats were confident in their case, they would make it without privilege or prejudice for any particular witness. Republican members, chosen by Republican leadership, would have the right to examine and cross-examine everyone who testifies. Ordinary due process would be observed. But the Democrats are clearly far from confident – about their case, but more importantly still, about their electoral prospects. For them, the January 6 hearings had to be a “no-risk” proposition, a fait accompli in which the “defendants” are presumed guilty with no opportunity to “prove” their innocence. Due process, for Pelosi and crew, was simply a luxury that could not be afforded.