Although many of former President Donald Trump’s allies have faced criminal charges — including “War Room” host Steve Bannon, GOP operatives Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg — Trump himself has never faced any type of criminal indictment. Trump, now 76, survived former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, was found “not guilty” in two impeachment trials, and still inspires plenty of fear in the Republican Party.
Nonetheless, Trump is facing multiple criminal or civil investigations, from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis to New York State Attorney General Letitia James. The January 6 Select Committee, wrapping up its work, recommended four federal criminal charges to the DOJ — although it remains to be seen whether or not special counsel Jack Smith, appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, will follow any of those recommendations.
In an article published by The New Republic on December 27, Donald Trump’s niece, psychologist/author Mary L. Trump, hopes that 2023 will be the year in which her uncle’s luck finally runs out.
Mary Trump — a cousin of Ivanka and Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. and the daughter of the late Fred Trump, Jr. — observes, “The Committee voted unanimously for the first time in our history to refer a former occupant of the Oval Office to the Department of Justice to be prosecuted on four charges: obstruction of an official proceeding of the United States government, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and inciting, assisting, or aiding and comforting an insurrection.”
The former president’s niece notes that her uncle’s “enablers” in the Republican Party have given him a pass time and time again no matter how badly he crossed the line.
“From the time the Republican Party accepted the inevitability of Donald’s nomination in 2016, the danger has remained the same — that by failing to push back against even his most egregious behaviors, Republicans have allowed them to become normalized,” Mary Trump explains. “None of this even takes into account the GOP’s silence in the face of Donald’s massive breaches of norms and protocols during the transition, including the corruption of the Department of Defense at the highest level, the intelligence failures leading up to January 6 riot, and law enforcement missteps and miscommunications during the insurrection.”
The former president’s niece adds, “As mind-scrambling as all of this is — the man, after all, still roams free not only to pursue his latest grift, but to lead the Republican Party as its candidate for the 2024 presidential election — the question remains: ‘Will any of it make a difference?’…. The Republican Party is a party of autocrats and fascists. Jettisoning Donald won’t change that.”
Mary Trump concludes her article by hoping that the “doors” are finally “closing in” on her uncle, although she isn’t sure.
“The January 6 committee report was released before Christmas, and it is devastating,” Mary Trump notes. “But the report is simply that, and the charges are merely referrals. There is a chance in the end that it all will have been purely symbolic, that the real indictment of Donald will be the judgment of history. To say that this is unsatisfying would be an understatement of vast proportions. Because what happens to Donald is not simply about justice or fairness. The crossroads at which we currently find ourselves has more to do with whether those in a position to heal our broken institutions decide instead to do nothing, thereby leaving us and our country broken permanently.”
Mary Trump continues, “We keep being reminded by people urging patience that the doors are closing in on Donald — they ostensibly have been for decades. But they’re still open.”