Let’s see what someone who spent her entire adult life in American politics has learned about its civics and system of justice. When reacting to the news of the grand jury indictment of Donald Trump last night, Nancy Pelosi rushed to assure us that they had “acted upon the facts and the law,” two assertions without apparent evidence — considering that we haven’t even seen the indictment yet. At the same time, Pelosi instructed everyone to remember that Trump has a right to a trial, where he can “prove innocence.”

Er … what?

The Grand Jury has acted upon the facts and the law.

No one is above the law, and everyone has the right to a trial to prove innocence.

Hopefully, the former President will peacefully respect the system, which grants him that right.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 31, 2023

If the system now requires defendants to prove their innocence when indicted, then that system should get no respect at all. As pretty much anyone who hasn’t immersed themselves in Beltway swampwater across five decades could easily explain, trials are not for defendants to “prove innocence.” Defendants in the American system aren’t required to prove anything at all. 

Rather, trials require the government to prove guilt. In fact, the standard of proof for guilt in criminal cases is not just a preponderance of evidence either, but beyond a reasonable doubt. For Pete’s sake, schoolchildren know this. Why doesn’t Pelosi?

Furthermore, a trial (and for that matter preliminary hearings) exist to test the proposition that grand juries and prosecutors did indeed “follow the facts and the law” when issuing indictments. That is the actual purpose of trials, and of requiring the prosecution to bear that burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors wield great power and are susceptible to human failings — incompetence, politicization, corruption, and just plain malice. Judges and juries exist as checks on that power, as does that burden of proof.

This might seem like a momentary brain cramp — in isolation. However, the past few years have shown that the political establishment, government bureaucrats, and their partners in media have adopted a guilty-until-proven-innocent mentality. That came through clearly in the Russia-collusion hoax, especially in the reliance on the ludicrous Steele dossier. It became even more pronounced in the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the FBI, DHS, CDC, and other agencies actively pressured Big Tech companies to quash dissent and debate over government policies. News organizations played along, and in fact still do, actively suppressing stories that turn out to be true and acting as enforcer for the ruling class’ propaganda edicts.

Pelosi didn’t make a momentary blunder. She revealed what she wants American governance to be: a tyranny where political adversaries are threatened with prosecution, and when indicted, are forced to “prove innocence.” This is the progressive project — to concentrate power in Washington, DC, and dictate outcomes across the US, and to leverage law enforcement and prosecutions to keep power. And if they’re emboldened enough to go after Donald Trump, none of the rest of us are safe. Or perhaps you missed how Matt Taibbi got a visit from the IRS while exposing this censorship complex while testifying to Congress?

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