Leadership with Conviction

 Ehud Olmert

Benjamin Netanyahu

 Nicolas Sarkozy 

Donald Trump

We’re all familiar with banana Republics, nations experiencing coups d’état, and roiling civil wars that result in overthrows, assassinations, arrests and death sentences for top leaders. Myanmar’s military just deposed the civilian government and arrested its entire top leadership, as a most recent example. The Arab Spring took down several leaders, both elected and self-appointed dictators, and more than one autocrat was summarily executed. 

In the democratically elected developed world, arresting and trying a former president or prime minister for criminal conduct just did/does not happen, perhaps with Israel being the glaring exception. Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert (2006 to 2009) was convicted of the crime of breach of trust in July 2012 and in March of 2015 of bribery. He was sentenced to six years in prison, but in December 2015 his sentence was reduced to 18 months. And on February 8th, current Israeli prime minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, even though he is still in office, pled not guilty to of one charge of bribery and three charges of fraud and breach of trust in a Jerusalem courtroom. Although Netanyahu is getting credit for the widespread deployment of an anti-COVID vaccine, that still does not buy him a “get out of jail free” card.

But what slipped below the headlines and was buried as a back page story in the press outside of France is represented by the March 1st sentencing of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012) for influence peddling and corruption. Convicted after a 10-day trial in December, he was sentenced to a year in prison (he has requested confinement to his own home) and a further two years of a suspended sentence. France? This has never happened in France in the modern era.

After a mountain of evidence, including the results of wiretaps, Sarkozy failed to convince the court that his conversations were just “small talk” or privileged conversations. Sound familiar? Sarkozy continues to have a serious right-wing following, but he “withdrew from active politics after failing to be chosen as his conservative party’s presidential candidate for France’s 2017 election, won by Emmanuel Macron.

“He [continues to play] a major role behind the scenes, including through maintaining a relationship with Macron, whom he is said to advise on certain topics. His memoirs published last year, ‘The Time of Storms,’ was a bestseller for weeks.

“Sarkozy will face another trial later this month along with 13 other people on charges of illegal financing of his 2012 presidential campaign… His conservative party is suspected of having spent 42.8 million euros ($50.7 million), almost twice the maximum authorized, to finance the campaign, which ended in victory for Socialist rival Francois Hollande… In another investigation opened in 2013, Sarkozy is accused of having taken millions from then-Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi to illegally finance his 2007 campaign… He was handed preliminary charges of passive corruption, illegal campaign financing, concealment of stolen assets from Libya and criminal association. He has denied wrongdoing.” Associated Press, March 1st.

And now we come to the former President of the United States of America, Donald John Trump, who continues to insist (as shown in his recent speech at CPAC) that he won the November election, despite over 60 judicial determinations and state certifications to the contrary. Most Americans have heard all or part of his January 6th Eclipse rally speech that joined others in his coterie of GOP leaders that immediately preceded the insurrection and sacking at the Capitol. We’ve watched endless footage from that invasion.

Senate Minority Leader, Republican Mitch McConnell may have voted to acquit an impeached president on what he believed was a constitutional jurisdictional issue, but he did not mince words on his floor speech after that Senate vote. Here is just some of what he said: “There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.

“And their having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth…

“Impeachment, conviction, and removal are a specific intra-governmental safety valve. It is not the criminal justice system, where individual accountability is the paramount goal. Indeed, [Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story (1812-1845)] specifically reminded that while former officials were not eligible for impeachment or conviction, they were – and this is extremely important – ‘still liable to be tried and punished in the ordinary tribunals of justice.’

“Put another way, in the language of today: President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen, unless the statute of limitations has run, still liable for everything he did while in office, didn't get away with anything yet – yet.” Will the Department of Justice, independent of presidential pressure, take up the mantle of indicting, arresting and trying a former US president for crimes, including inciting an insurrection, purportedly committed during his term in office? Or is holding a person responsible for death and destruction foreseeably caused seemingly at his direction too divisive? Does justice matter?

I’m Peter Dekom, and accountability would seem to be the greatest deterrent against future rogue behavior, incitement and other seeming criminal conduct by any American president of any political party.