Pollak: Biden Has Poisoned the Jury Pool Against Trump; Fair Trial Impossible

Former President Donald Trump should move for a dismissal of all criminal charges against him in all cases, and especially in his trial in Washington, D.C., after President Joe Biden claimed Trump was guilty of “insurrection” and a “threat to democracy.”

Trump poses many threats to our country: The right to choose, civil rights, voting rights, and America’s standing in the world.

But the greatest threat he poses is to our democracy.

If we lose that, we lose everything.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 21, 2023

Biden said Wednesday that Trump “certainly supported an insurrection. There’s no question about it. None. Zero.” That claim was rejected by the Senate in Trump’s second impeachment trial. There is certainly a “question” about it; half of Americans polled in January 2023 believed the Capitol riot was a protest that got out of hand. Yet the claim of “insurrection” was also implied by Special Counsel Jack Smith in charging Trump with “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” among other charges. Though Smith has thus far declined to charge Trump with insurrection or sedition, his indictment reflects that claim, as it all but blames Trump for the Capitol riot, citing his “Stop the Steal” speech (without the part about protesting  “peacefully and patriotically”).

Biden’s proclamation has poisoned the jury pool — not only because the president suggested that Trump was guilty, but also because Biden declared Trump to be a “threat to democracy.” He has cast the former president as a threat to the country. The implication is that it would be the civic duty of any jury to remove the threat, even if it meant wrongfully convicting Trump.

Similar remarks by President Barack Obama in 2013 about the guilt of defendants threw ongoing military trials into chaos. Though military tribunals are Article II courts, and federal courts are Article III courts, the same principle ought to apply, especially when the president is effectively describing the defendant as an enemy of the country, whose freedom is a threat.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.