At around 2 a.m. local time, Donald Trump published another item about his ongoing criminal trial to his social media platform, and while most of it was conspiratorial nonsense, there was one small detail in the former president’s message that stood out. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Former President Donald Trump pleaded Wednesday with congressional Republicans to thwart the criminal trials he is facing while he campaigns against President Biden. Mr. Trump, posting on Truth Social, said the cases “must be stopped” for the “good of the country.” “The Crooked Joe Biden Witch Hunts have to be ended. REPUBLICANS IN WASHINGTON MUST TAKE ACTION!” he posted.
For the record, there’s literally no evidence of President Joe Biden being “crooked” or having anything whatsoever to do with his predecessor’s prosecutions. But of greater interest is Trump’s apparent belief that congressional Republicans can somehow intervene and rescue him from his criminal troubles.
They can’t — though the suspected felon may not fully understand that.
If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because the presumptive GOP nominee has made similar appeals before. Circling back to our earlier coverage, the push began in earnest a year ago this week, when the former president’s lawyers sent a strange, 10-page letter to the House Intelligence Committee, insisting that the panel approve a “legislative solution” to prevent federal prosecutors from pursuing a case against him.
The letter proposed that the Justice Department “should be ordered to stand down” — as if members of the legislative branch have the authority to direct federal prosecutors to drop a case. (They have no such authority.)
A month later, the Republican reiterated the point, publishing an online tantrum in which he argued that Congress should “demand” that prosecutors “stop the Witch Hunt against ‘TRUMP.’” (I still don’t know why he referred to himself in third person and put his name in quotes.)
A month after that, as another criminal indictment neared, the former president again looked to Capitol Hill for some kind of rescue. “REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS MUST MAKE THIS THEIR # 1 ISSUE!!!” Trump wrote.
A month after that, he again begged GOP lawmakers to “stop” prosecutors’ cases in order to “save our country.”
Two months after that, Trump appeared at a rally and said congressional Republicans “cannot let” his prosecutions continue.
As of this morning, he’s still at it, demanding that GOP lawmakers “take action” on his behalf. Trump has never gotten around to explaining what kind of “action” he expects to see, and that’s probably because Congress has no real options: Members have no control over who is or isn’t indicted, and lawmakers can’t simply choose to insert themselves in active criminal investigations. Short of defunding prosecutors — a step Trump apparently supports — it wouldn’t make much of a practical difference whether GOP lawmakers made the former president’s legal troubles “their #1 issue” or not. Feeling desperate, the criminal defendant isn’t just looking to Capitol Hill for a rescue. Trump also suggested around 2 a.m. this morning that unspecified “Appellate Courts have to take over his case,” apparently because he says so. This comes months after he demanded that the U.S. Supreme Court “intercede” in his cases. Trump appears to believe he’ll be absolved of his legal troubles if he can simply beg the right person to make the cases disappear. As his defense attorneys have probably tried to explain to him, that’s not how any of this works. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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