Artwork by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
When Bernie Madoff, the notorious architect of one of the biggest Ponzi schemes in American history, was found guilty and sentenced to over one hundred and fifty years in prison for swindling his clients out of billions of dollars, Americans breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed as if justice had finally been done. Bernie was going to do time and get what he deserved. But then the federal Bureau of Prisons, in its ultimate wisdom, assigned Madoff to FCI Butner Medium, a low to medium security facility near Raleigh, North Carolina.
Instead of going to Leavenworth or ADX Florence or any other maximum-security unit, Madoff got to go to a facility with lower security, dormitory housing, and pleasantly groomed green grounds. He was only placed in the medium security unit instead of the lower because of the length of his sentence. If the judge had been more lenient in his sentencing, Bernie might even have gone to one of the federal minimum security prison camps, which have no perimeter fencing, few guards, and even feature handball courts. While a far cry from the Club Fed prison camps of the 1980s (remember Leonardo DiCaprio’s character playing tennis at his minimum-security unit at the end of The Wolf of Wall Street?), these prisons not the maximum and even medium security units most mere mortal criminals have to attend.
Federal Bureau of Prisons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
All of this begs the question of what sort of punishment should be meted out to participants of the attempted coup on January 6th, 2021. Some of the traitors have already been convicted and sentenced. According to Time magazine, of the over eight hundred people have been arrested for attacking the Capitol, 185 have been sentenced while the rest are awaiting trial or plea agreements. Eighty of those are incarcerated on charges ranging from trespassing to weapons possession to assault. The notorious QAnon Shaman Jacob Anthony Chansley received forty-one-month prison sentence which he is currently serving at FCI Stafford, a low-security facility. We can only hope other, more violent offenders will be doing their time in medium or maximum-security facilities. But these are the small fish, the minions called up by Trump to raid the Capitol and overturn the election results.
During the January 6th Congressional hearings, it has become patently obvious that former President Trump’s inner circle of Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Peter Navarro, Michael Flynn, and Sydney Powell, having exhausted all legal means of disputing the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, deliberately decided to bring the mob to D.C. with the intention of disrupting Congress’ certification of the Electoral vote. Testimony from White House lawyers, aides, campaign managers, and others have provided evidence that shows that the former president not only gathered the crowd with the intention of disrupting the certification, but that he knew they were armed and presumably dangerous.
Charges of conspiracy or sedition have not yet been brought against many of those who attempted to overthrow the results of the election. While the evidence points squarely at elements within the White House, the idea of indicting and trying a former president—and his cronies—remains an anathema to some. They say it would cripple our democracy or disempower the Executive branch. Even though countries like Italy, France, and dozens of others have tried, convicted, and imprisoned former heads of state, their governments have survived—and thrived. the United States seems reluctant to hold its leaders culpable. Richard Nixon was pardoned immediately after he resigned although he could have faced a number of conspiracy charges.
Should the Department of Justice decide to use the extensive evidence provided by the January 6th hearings and file federal charges of conspiracy and sedition against elements of the Trump White House, what might happen?
Donald Trump is already under investigation in the state of Georgia for attempting to tamper with election results there, as well as—in a separate investigation—for irregularities in his business dealings in New York. This was after he had been accused numerous times of sexual assault. While numerous suits have been brought against him for a variety of transgressions, very little sticks to this man. He is orange teflon.
Which begs yet another question. Should Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn, Sydney Powell (who is being sued by Dominion Corporation for defamatory statements) and Mark Meadows be tried and convicted for conspiracy to overthrow the American government, what will their punishment be? Chances are that they will suffer fates very similar to that of Bernie Madoff, incarcerated in a medium-security facility like Butner. Some might even end up at federal prison camps complete with handball courts, dormitory housing, and the freedom to walk around at will (Think Orange is the New Black).
Of course, should Donald J. Trump be convicted of conspiracy, sedition, or even depraved indifference (he did know the crowd was heavily armed), the question remains where—or even if—he will do time. Corrupt Wall Street executives, crooked lawyers, embezzlers, and fraudulent bankers never seem to end up in Sing Sing, Attica, Alcatraz, or Leavenworth. They do time in quiet little places with exercise facilities, law libraries, and multiple televisions. The only reason Bernie Madoff did time in medium was because of the length of his sentence. Otherwise, he’d have been at a federal camp. While the “club feds” of the eighties (complete with swimming pools) no longer exist, the inequities within our penal system are astounding.
Back in the day, traitors and seditionists were hung for their crimes. Today, they might have to spend a couple of years learning how to play horseshoes or backgammon. And this is immoral, disgusting, and just plain wrong. These people threatened our democracy and actively engaging in fomenting a deadly act of terrorism in an attempt to overthrow our government. They are not only traitors—they are terrorists.
Terrorists Terry Nichols, Ted Kaczynski, and Richard Reid, among others, are inmates at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison. How are the crimes of the January 6th conspirators different from those of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, shoe bomber Richard Reid, or Oklahoma City bomber conspirator Terry Nichols?
Power, influence, and money will finally determine the culpability of these criminals. They’ll more than likely get slapped on the wrists. After all, the rich live by different rules—they always have.
However, now is the time to change that. These crimes of January 6th are beyond the pale. These conspirators are not your usual white-collar criminals; they are violent, and they are deadly, and they have not been deterred. They still pose a danger to our freedoms.
Lock ‘em up.
Amen, Brother Geoff!