RIA Novosti published an article by columnist Victoria Nikiforova, who has long been known to readers of the Antifake column, under the heading "Trump's arrest led to a US constitutional crisis." Nikiforova begins by painting a large-scale picture of the protests of the supporters of the 45th president:
“In New York and Washington, the entire police force was brought to the streets. The security forces are building barricades. Caravans of cars come from all over the country to New York. Drivers are beeping, passengers are waving American flags. People on the roadside wave at them and hold up “Make America Great Again!” banners. This is how Donald Trump supporters express their support for their president. His arrest today finally split America. The civil confrontation threatens to develop into a real “big badabum”.
Reality, however, in comparison with this colorful description looks rather faded. The British newspaper The Guardian describes the situation in New York as follows:
“In fact, it was all sort of an anti-climax. Several hundred Trump supporters and opponents gathered outside the Manhattan Criminal Court, and the crowd was expected to go wild when the former president arrived and was taken into custody. But in fact, few people knew about the arrival of Donald Trump until he was already in the building under arrest. The scene was somewhat depressing: from two opposing crowds, separated by metal barriers, there was more whispering than chanting. <…>
[When Trump arrived at the courthouse], the anti-Trump protesters, many of whom had been dancing, singing and chanting since around 9:30 a.m. that same day, applauded loudly. Someone was blowing whistles, and they were blown with jubilation. <…>
On Trump's side at the barricade, the mood was calm. No one cried, no one fell to their knees, there was only a quiet murmur as curses were heard from under the sea of red MAGA baseball caps. In the morning they were more lively, although the central part of the protest – the appearance of Marjorie Taylor Green, a far-right Republican and conspiracy theorist – almost immediately turned into a farce.
The American edition of Politico writes about the events of the previous day in an article entitled "Trump supporters say low turnout was 'intentional'." It says:
“Over the weekend, Donald Trump urged supporters to protest Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's pending indictment. On Monday, few in the city heeded the call.
“We brought everything together at the last minute, in the last 24 hours,” said Gavin Wax. The president of the New York Republican Youth Club organized a demonstration outside the Manhattan Criminal Court, where Trump could be indicted in the coming days.
"We weren't sure we even wanted to perform because some people don't like us, but we're here to show that there is support for President Trump in the most Democratic neighborhood in the country, here in Manhattan," Wax said, trying to explain. that there were only about 50 people in attendance, although earlier that day he had predicted that the crowd would be at least three times as large. On Monday evening, Wax said the low turnout was intentional because the club wanted it to be a 'low-key' event."
Here, in fact, is the whole "big badabum". About the constitutional crisis, Nikiforova writes this:
“The idea of the Democratic establishment – namely, it is diligently served by the Manhattan prosecutor – was to humiliate Trump as much as possible, destroying him in the eyes of voters. Everything worked for it. Deliberately dirty business involving porn actress Stormy Daniels. The first ever criminal charges against a US president. The first ever arrest of a president, apart from the anecdotal arrest of Ulysses Grant for speeding on a horse-drawn carriage. <…>
Criminal prosecution is indeed a signal to all dissident Americans, including Ron DeSantis, the second most popular Republican after Trump. If he moves even a little bit, not wanting to play by the rules of the deep state, he will also be imprisoned. This is Pinochetism in all its glory, in fact. The Democratic Party is trying to build in itself the very kind of dictatorship that has been implanted in countries dependent on America for a long time. However, half the country is ready to fight it.”
It is not clear what Nikiforova saw as anecdotal in the fact that the incumbent president is being detained for violating traffic rules. This is just a clear demonstration of the democratic system in action: everyone is equal before the law, the president is no exception. By the way, Grant himself understood this very well: the policeman, having recognized the president in the violator, wanted to let him go, but he insisted that the requirement of the law be met. As a result, the crew was arrested, and the president had to continue on foot.
But speeding is not such a serious offense that it faces arrest. Trump is the first president in US history to be arrested. However, there was a case in history when only a pardon saved a resigned president from arrest. It was with Richard Nixon after he resigned in 1973 under the threat of imminent removal from office. Thus, Nixon avoided impeachment proceedings, but not criminal prosecution for the illegal installation of a listening device at the headquarters of his rival in the presidential election, Democrat George McGovern.
In September 1974, Nixon's resignation President Gerald Ford issued Proclamation 4311 pardoning Nixon "for all offenses against the United States which he committed or may have committed between January 20, 1969, and August 9, 1974" ( that is, during his tenure as president).
The decision to pardon was frowned upon by American society; President Ford's approval rating dropped from 71% to 37%. It is believed that this was one of the main reasons for his defeat in the 1976 presidential election. Ford himself said that, in making this decision, he relied on the decision of the Supreme Court of 1915, according to which the convicted or suspect has the right to refuse a pardon, which implies the imputation of guilt, and its acceptance is an admission of guilt. That is, in this way, an end was put to the question of Nixon's guilt, although he did not suffer a criminal punishment.
What does Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean dictator who came to power as a result of a military coup and physically exterminated his opponents, have to do with it, only Nikiforova knows. But the prosecution of former state leaders for crimes committed while in power is not uncommon in democracies. The President of South Korea in 1980-1988, Chung Doo-hwan, was sentenced to death in 1996 for organizing the military coup that brought him to power and illicit enrichment. His successor as president, Ro Dae-woo, was sentenced to 22.5 years in prison for participating in the same coup. Both were later pardoned, but in 2020, Jung Doo Hwan was sentenced to 8 months probation for defamation. In 2018, the President of South Korea in 2013-2017, Park Geun-hye, who was removed from power as a result of the impeachment proceedings, was sentenced to 24 years for bribery and abuse of power, and when the case was retried, the term was increased to 25 years, then reduced to 22. She was also pardoned in December 2021.
In 2018, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was arrested as part of an investigation into possible illegal financing of his 2007 election campaign. In 2021, he was sentenced to a year in prison and 2 years of probation for corruption, abuse of influence, and divulging the secrecy of an investigation. Later, a year of house arrest was added to this for exceeding the limit on spending money on the election campaign. These events did not cause any constitutional crises either in France or in South Korea.