Unnoticed by the media spectacle awaiting former President Donald Trump’s motorcade for his arraignment at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 3, was the granting of a motion giving my Field Artillery Officer Basic Course classmate Chris Kuehne one last chance to reach a plea deal before facing a trial for his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
The Christian, nationalist, and racist symbols displayed at the Capitol that day revealed to many white Christian nationalism’s single objective of maintaining the freedom of those in power by imposing law and order on other groups with violence when necessary. After being charged for his own unprecedented assault on American democracy, Trump correctly told reporters that his indictment was, “a very sad day for America,” however, that sadness should be over our Declaration of Independence’s assertion that “all men are created equal” and the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of “an impartial jury” in criminal prosecutions.
White Christian nationalism has taken many forms since colonization, from the Salem witch trials against women, to the Trail of Tears against Indigenous people, to the succession of the Confederacy to keep African Americans enslaved. Our great democratic experiment has rarely achieved true majority rule by the consent of the governed, with that not even becoming a viable possibility until the final state’s property ownership voting requirement was removed five years before the Civil War, all enslaved people being emancipated on Juneteenth, and the 19th Amendment’s ratification allowing woman suffrage in 1920.
Trump’s initial candidacy appealed to many Americans that were unknowingly accustomed to the freedoms associated from being in power, that were fine with other groups gaining rights if their status was not threatened, and were tired of traditional politicians never solving long simmering issues like income inequality, immigration, and corporate greed. However, after four more years of cable news’ profit-driven “culture wars” scapegoating immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and women just wanting bodily autonomy, some saw a second Trump term as protection against persecution by a Biden presidency. Many believed Trump’s assertions that only a stolen election could prevent his second term, watched in disbelief when Biden was declared the winner as Trump’s denials created an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and then did not perceive his most zealous followers trying to keep Trump in power as trying to overturn American democracy by violence to preserve their minority rule on Jan. 6.
Federal prosecutors only bring charges when a conviction is near certain, like how the charges against Kuehne will almost certainly result in the former Marine Scout Sniper turned captain either pleading or being found guilty for preventing law enforcement from holding the mob at bay with four of his fellow Proud Boys, after having breached the Capitol Building in his ballistic plate carrier and helmet.
Jury nullification is therefore the biggest risk federal prosecutions often face, because any one juror’s deliberate rejection of the evidence or refusal to apply the law will prevent the unanimous verdict required to convict the criminal defendant. However, while Kuenhe was at the forefront of the white Christian nationalist attack on the seat of our democracy at the behest of the defeated president, the decorated combat veteran has no chance of jury nullification compared to Trump, who rightfully had a protective order placed against him and his attorneys preventing the improper use of witness interviews and recordings that will be shared during discovery. Every potential juror has likely already heard the lies by the former president, politicians putting their political ambitions over their country by repeating his lies, and the same cable news outlets too afraid to lose profits if they didn’t descend further into the very “culture wars” they fermented. Despite the law being indifferent towards whatever one claims they believed when in furtherance of a crime, only one juror needs to be persuaded to disregard the law for juror nullification.
Trump would become a martyr to many if he were imprisoned before trial for violating his bail conditions prohibiting intimidating witnesses or interfering with the administration of justice, let alone if a unanimous jury found him guilty.
As of March 2022, 18% of Americans believe in some of the terminally online QAnon conspiracy theory tenets that include the defeated president being a messianic figure, that he fuels by constantly invoking “American carnage,” which is reminiscent of apocalyptic Bible verses. The practicing of Christianity is far less important to today’s white Christian nationalism than is identifying as a Christian who views the Constitution as being divinely inspired and America being declared a Christian nation. Despite the Constitution never mentioning God and the movement’s religious aspect seeking the return to a time that never existed, these desires helped make mainstream the once fringe legal theory of originalism, that interprets the Constitution’s text as sacred, primarily to preserve only the freedoms of those in power.
This has not only emboldened several of our lawless Supreme Court justices to recently take away the rights of others, but can potentially lead to further unprecedented rulings to impact the outcome of the former president’s ongoing trials. More of an immediate concern, are the reported threats by fanatics against the judges, prosecutors, and grand jurors involved in Trump’s multiple criminal proceedings that have law enforcement preparing for some level of mayhem throughout the defeated president’s trials, however any white Christian nationalist revolution will more likely be won at the ballot box.
Kuehne’s wife describes Chris not only as “a man that deeply loves God, his country and his family,” but one that received a Purple Heart, a Navy Commendation Medal with Valor, and a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Valor, each of which would have been for his actions in combat and should earn him the same Sixth Amendment right to “an impartial jury” as anyone. Unfortunately, our Declaration of Independence’s assertion that “all men are created equal” is now being tried as our founding fathers never could have envisioned, with the ongoing onslaught of election lies over the past three years putting the defeated president in his strongest position to retake the White House if a unanimous guilty verdict is not reached. In the meantime, all we the people can do is speak the truth, have faith that our democratic system will deliver justice, and exercise our right to vote.
Josh Denton is an Iraq War combat veteran, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 168 and a Portsmouth city councilor.