Trump must be held accountable: Caribbean pols

As a grand jury Monday night indicted former United States President Donald J. Trump on efforts to overturn the 2020 US Presidential Elections, Caribbean legislators in New York have stressed that Trump must be held accountable.

The grand jury in Fulton County, Ga unveiled the fourth criminal indictment of the former president. 

“Donald Trump must be held accountable for his efforts to undermine our democracy,” New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams told the Caribbean Life on Tuesday. 

“His latest indictment in Georgia is part of a process that will continue to move forward, uninhibited by the former president’s attacks or incitements to action, and unwavering in a commitment to justice for the unprecedented conduct of Donald Trump in his efforts to grab and hold onto power and relevance at the expense of any and all,” added the son of Grenadian immigrants. 

Photo credit: Office of Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke

Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the predominantly 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn, said: “Once again, another indictment proves that in America, no one is above the law.” 

Clarke had reiterated the refrain after Trump was indicted for the third time earlier this month.

At that time, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed the third indictment in US Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., accusing the former president of three conspiracies – defrauding the United States; obstructing an official government proceeding, that is the certification of the Electoral College vote; and depriving nationals of their civil right, the right to have their votes counted.

Smith also charged Trump with obstructing or attempting to obstruct an official proceeding.

“A year ago, the bipartisan Select Committee on January 6th began an 18-month probe into what occurred following the 2020 election, and on and around January 6th. Although Mr. Trump asserted the committee found no proof of his misconduct, today’s indictment makes clear that the bipartisan House select committee created a roadmap to justice for our institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law,” Clarke told Caribbean Life. “For the sake of our democracy, I will hold faith that this indictment will play out through the legal process, without interference.”

Federal prosecutors have also charged Trump and his person aide, Walt Nauta, with “conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding government documents, corruptly concealing records, concealing a document in a federal investigation and scheming to conceal their efforts.”

In early April, Caribbean-American Democratic legislators in New York welcomed the decision by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office to charge Trump with 34 felony charges of falsifying business records in the first degree.

The indictment surrounds Trump’s reimbursements to his former fixer, Michael D. Cohen, the prosecution’s key witness, for a hush-money payment to pornographic star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Manhattan.

But just a scant few days after the Jamaican-born judge overseeing his third indictment warned Trump of making inflammatory remarks that could impact his trial, the former US President intensified his attacks on prosecutors and the judge.  

On his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump on Tuesday assailed Special Prosecutor Jack Smith as “deranged” and attacked Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, as “corrupt”.

His outrage has prompted observers and political pundits to warn that he is towing a very fine line in being arrested. 

Some even claim that if the former president was an ordinary citizen, he would have been incarcerated for contempt of court.