Justice or persecution? The Trump dilemma

"Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election well deserves punishment from the standpoint of both retribution and deterrence," wrote George Mason University Law Professor Ilya Somin following the four-count indictment filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith in early August. "For the head of state in a democracy, there are few more serious crimes than using fraud to try to stay in power after losing an election." Somin has also said that "some of the charges seem compelling" in the case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. Critics of the indictments have pointed out the conspicuous timing of the scheduled trial date, accused Trump's prosecutors of trying to "criminalize speech," and suggested that double-standards when it comes to prosecuting Trump while ignoring the misdeeds of his political opponents is "the stuff of banana republics." Others worry that the prosecution will inspire "ever more aggressive tit-for-tat investigations" Join Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe for a live discussion about  the political and social ramifications of the Trump indictments with Somin this Thursday at 12 p.m. Eastern on Reason's YouTube channel.  Sources referenced in this conversation: Sources: Ilya Somin: The Case for Prosecuting Trump https://reason.com/volokh/2023/08/02/retribution-deterrence-and-the-case-for-prosecuting-trump-for-conspiring-to-overturn-the-2020-election/ Ilya Somin: The Georgia Case Against Trump https://reason.com/volokh/2023/08/15/the-georgia-case-against-trump/ Fulton County Indictment of Donald Trump https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23909542/23sc188947-criminal-indictment.pdf Jan. 6 Committee Report https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-J6-REPORT/pdf/GPO-J6-REPORT.pdf Federal indictment of Donald Trump: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148/gov.uscourts.dcd.258148.1.0_4.pdf Former Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker: Trump indictment the ‘stuff of banana republics,’ June 8, 2023: https://www.foxnews.com/video/6329042270112 William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen on Trump’s eligibility and the 14th Amendment: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4532751 Trump election night speech, Nov. 4, 2020 https://www.c-span.org/video/?477710-1/president-trump-remarks-election-status Jack Goldsmith: The Prosecution of Trump May Have Terrible Consequences https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/08/opinion/trump-indictment-cost-danger.html WaPo: FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s involvement in Jan. 6 for more than a year https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/06/19/fbi-resisted-opening-probe-into-trumps-role-jan-6-more-than-year/ John Eastman’s Memo for how to overturn the election https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21066248-eastman-memo Bill Barr, Aug, 2, 2023: Trump “knew well that he had lost”: https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1686925052674019328 Rand Paul: GA prosecutors want to “criminalize speech” https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1696852506112868645?s=20 John Eastman defends himself on the Laura Ingraham Show, Aug. 31, 2023: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/john-eastman-shoots-himself-in-the-foot-on-fox-news/ar-AA1g2cb7 WaPo: Could the 14th Amendment Keep Trump Off the Ballot in 2024? - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/05/trump-14th-amendment-ballot/