Bulwark Editor Jonathan Last said President Donald Trump will soon learn there's one aspect of the U.S. criminal justice system that can't be corrupted.
“The criminal justice system is probably the least subject to total corruption,” Last told Former Jeb Bush speech writer Tim Miller on Tuesday’s Bulwark podcast. “The prosecutorial side of it can be corrupted. The Department of Justice can be corrupted. The FBI can be corrupted, but at the end of the day, they do have to get 12 normal Americans to sit together [and agree]. … We've seen this with grand juries and attempts to indict people in D.C., where the normal voters in D.C. who are sent to jury duty on this stuff look and say, F that. No, I'm not signing off on that.”
The statement arose from Trump’s “delusional rant” about the NBA scandal wherein Trump alleged that Democrats had stolen the 2020 election, in spite of a lack of evidence.
“The 2020 Presidential Election, being Rigged and Stolen, is a far bigger SCANDAL,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Look what happened to our Country when a Crooked Moron became our "President!" We now know everything. I hope the DOJ pursues this with as much "gusto" as befitting the biggest SCANDAL in American history! If not, it will happen again, including the upcoming Midterms.”
Miller raked Trump’s inability to convince his most dedicated allies to pursue his bogus claims of election theft in earnest.
“I thought this was the biggest scandal in American history if the election was stolen from Donald Trump,” said Miller. “He now has all of the power and resources of the government at his hands. Shouldn't they be using that to go after the perpetrators?”
Miller added he doubts Trump has the wherewithal "for a full effort to totally co-opt the criminal justice system by doing the things you would need to do, such as planting evidence."
Trump officials are already fabricating evidence “on the margins,” Miller assured, with officials like Bill Pulte “Googling every Democrat in the country on their mortgage history to … see if they’re claiming a second house as their [primary] residence."
“We'll see how the [Letitia] James case ends up shaking out, but your heart's not really in the game if that's all you're doing. If you really wanted to corrupt it, you got to be even more aggro. You got to give the same effort to it that Trump gave to the Stop the Steal effort, really.”
Last said while Trump “has found people to break the law on his behalf” like advisors Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani and 1,500 pardoned Jan. 6 rioters, “there is still a class of people,” like former VP Mike Pence, who are unwilling “do evidence-planting stuff.”
Still, 12 months out from the 2026 elections, both Last and Miller agreed Trump is “laying the groundwork for a second Stop the Steal effort” for the midterms, trying to sell the story of upcoming Democrat corruption and recruiting powerful allies to help press his effort in courts and on the ground.
Miller said Trump is already trashing the California proposition vote to counter his mid-decade gerrymander in Texas and attacking the state’s ballot process.
“So, that’s already happening,” Miller said.
Hear the podcast at this link.