During Monday’s hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, Rep. Jamie Raskin said, “Ours is not a system of justice where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass.”
For now, that’s more of a wish than a reality.
Hopefully, the Department of Justice will follow through on the committee’s recommendation to prosecute former President Donald Trump for “influencing or impeding a an official proceeding of the US government”, “conspiring to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government” and “assisting or engaging in insurrection against the United States.”
Whether that happens or not, however, there remain a number of “foot soldiers” who have yet to face consequences for having attempted to aid in a coup, and a number of them are right here in Arizona.
They were part of a plan by Trump and his advisers to get Republican officials in Arizona and six other states to form slates of fake electors who would declare Trump to be the victor in an election they knew he had lost.
This happened after Trump had been told by his own campaign aides and by his attorney general that there were no legitimate claims of election fraud that would change the outcome of the election.
Even so, Trump cultists in Arizona and elsewhere signed false slates of electors.
That can’t go unpunished. The price for attempting to...
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