Kathe Geist: Trump’s corrosive effects

Two articles in the Oct. 31 issue of the Recorder point to the corrosive effect that Donald Trump’s criminality has on public morals. Jack Texeira, convicted of leaking classified documents, awaits sentencing [“Prosecutors seek 17 years for document leaker”]. Those who have leaked classified documents in the past have done so because they thought, rightly or wrongly, that the public should know about some government abuse.

Texeira leaked documents to impress his friends. Donald Trump stole truckloads of official documents, and what did he do with them? Showed them off to his friends. Texeira is facing 11 to 17 years in prison. We should ask U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon about America’s two-tiered system of justice.

A second article concerned two Yankee fans who ripped both the ball and the glove holding it away from Mookie Betts’ hand during Game 4 of the World Series [“Fans who interfered with Betts banned from Wednesday’s game”]. Fan interference happens, usually by accident. Trying to assist one’s team by assaulting a player is a magnitude higher, a small-scale reminder of the Trump-inspired Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, intended to assist Trump’s efforts to stay in office. Over 1,000 of those rioters have been prosecuted.

The biggest difference between Trump’s crimes and those of Texeira and these Yankee fans, apart from scale, is that ordinary people pay for their misdeeds. Trump does not. Money and partisan judicial actors have seen to that.

Kathe Geist

Charlemont