Democratic Ahabs finally caught their Moby Dick. This past week, former President Donald J. Trump appeared before a federal judge to answer for crimes surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Despite public fatigue with Trump’s many legal problems, Americans should not misreckon the gravity of the case. This is the most important criminal trial in the history of the Republic. But like in the great Herman Melville novel, the pursuit of the great white whale might end up dooming the voyage, not the whale.
The stakes could not be higher. Federal prosecutors have charged a former president with trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Our legal system has not confronted such a serious criminal accusation since the Jefferson administration prosecuted former vice president Aaron Burr for treason in 1807. President Richard Nixon resigned rather than face removal through impeachment, and President Gerald Ford pardoned him. Even the Republican victors in the Civil War declined to charge Confederate president Jefferson Davis, and the Founders did not prosecute loyalists after the Revolution.
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