When Donald Trump was President, he famously responded to the “Russia Russia Russia” attacks on him by claiming:
“Honestly, the whole thing, it is really a media witch hunt. It’s been a media witch hunt. And it’s bad for the country… And I think what’s happening is, as usual, the Democrats have played their card too hard on the Russia thing, because people aren’t believing it. It’s a witch hunt and they understand that. When they say “treason”—you know what treason is? That’s Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for giving the atomic bomb, OK?” [From August 13, 2017, available here.]
Before his arrest in New York, he had argued loudly and repeatedly that he is the victim of a “witch hunt.” He has attacked the Judges, the FBI, the Justice Department, the District Attorneys in both NY County and Fulton County, Georgia. In a recent tweet he has called for total defunding of the Department of Justice and the FBI.
I am sure most listeners know that I have a similarly negative view of the criminal justice system. Back in 1976, my brother and I led a march from Carnegie Hall to the local FBI field office in Manhattan chanting, “The Rosenbergs were innocent, the FBI is guilty!”
We have learned a lot since then and the story of my parents’ trial and execution is a bit more complicated than we thought back in the 1970s. Nevertheless, I do believe that my parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were railroaded by that system. The most egregious part of their case actually was revealed by Trump’s ignorant statement calling them traitors. According to the Constitution, you cannot commit treason on behalf of an ally. (The charge at my parents’ trial was that they had violated the Espionage Act of 1917 when they conspired to deliver national defense information to the Soviet Union, beginning in 1944 and continuing through the end of World War II. They could not have been indicted for treason, even though people use that term to describe them all the time.)
What I now believe is that the US government was so intent on getting my father to confess and implicate his confederates, that they were willing to break all the rules of how to conduct a fair criminal investigation and that the trial Judge and even the Supreme Court went along with that process, in the end denying my parents the rights that all people charged with a crime in the United States should retain.
[If readers want two simple but detailed expositions of what my father and mother actually did in the 1940s when the government claimed they “stole the secret of the atom bomb,” see Walter Schneir, Final Verdict, What Really Happened in the Rosenberg Case: Preface and Afterword by Miriam Schneir (NY: Melville House, 2010). The same material is presented in Michael Meeropol, “ ‘A Spy Who Turned His Family In,”Revisiting David Greenglass and the Rosenberg Case” American Communist History (Vol 17, No. 2, 31 May 2018. Available online here.) That article also includes evidence of how the government framed my mother and greatly exaggerated the culpability of my father. For a discussion of the outrageous behavior of the Judiciary including a “fix” at the Supreme Court, see Robert and Michael Meeropol, We Are Your Sons, 2nd Edition (Urbana, Ill: University of Illinois Press, 1986): ch. 14.]
Despite my long-held criticisms of the misbehavior of the United States government in the case of my parents, there are major differences between their experiences and the current state of investigations (and one prosecution) of ex-President Trump. My father had been a spy for the Soviet Union --- an ally remember --- during World War II. To coerce a confession, the government falsely magnified his crime ---- accusing him (and my mother) of successfully stealing the secret of the atom bomb and placing our nation’s survival in jeopardy. That was done to justify the death sentence which was used as a club to get him to name names. My mother was arrested to use her as a “lever” against my father even though a Justice Department official had stated there wasn’t enough evidence to indict her.
[The document which quotes the Head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice is available either from the FBI or at the Boston University Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center (“Rosenberg Prosecution Documents”). It is from the Julius Rosenberg (FBI) Headquarters File, File Number 188, A.M. Belmont to D.M. Ladd, July 17, 1950: “There is insufficient evidence to issue process against [Ethel Rosenberg] at this time … but it might be possible to utilize her as a lever against her husband.”
And it got worse. In order to make sure my mother was convicted, the government connived in the manufacture of perjured testimony. In February of 1951, the chief prosecution witnesses, David and Ruth Greenglass suddenly “remembered” that my mother had typed up spy material. This was in direct contradiction to both their Grand Jury testimonies. David Greenglass had explicitly stated that he never even spoke to my mother about his espionage activities. Decades later, he told 60 Minutes II that his typing testimony had been a lie.
[For details see the Grand Jury testimonies: Ruth Greenglass’ Grand Jury testimony is available here.
David Greenglass’ Grand Jury testimony is available here. His admission that his typing testimony at the trial was perjury occurred on 60 Minutes II (broadcast December 5, 2001). The report with direct quotes is available here.]
Clearly my parents were victims of a political prosecution even though my father was guilty of non-atomic espionage.
How is that story different from Trump’s?
FIRST -- BOTH my parents’ case and the investigations and (so far) one prosecution of ex-President Trump are tainted by politics. In the case of my parents, the government easily secured convictions by asking them if they were communists and when they took the Fifth Amendment the jury and the public at large believed they were hiding something. The government also falsely made them out to be successful atomic spies. Back in the 1950s, the political forces reinforced the government’s case against my parents because of pervasive anti-communism.
In Trump’s situation, ironically, the political winds are blowing AGAINST the government agencies investigating his various crimes. Those political head winds can explain why prosecutors have been so slow to bring charges. They know they have to be perfect to weather the Trumpist political storms. Please note, almost every Republican member of the House has joined Trump and his cult followers in attacking the prosecution by the NY District Attorney as a political hit job.
[For example, my Congressman Representative Mike Lawler issued the following statement:
“In order for our justice system to work, there must be confidence in the process and a belief that all citizens, regardless of their title or standing in society, will be treated without fear or favor, ,,,The indictment of former President Trump raises serious questions about the competence and impartiality of Manhattan District Attorney Bragg and his office."
"They must provide a complete and thorough explanation to the American people why these charges are being brought, despite federal authorities refusing to do so, and how these charges compare to previous decisions not to prosecute other elected officials, like former Mayor de Blasio, who have violated New York State and New York City campaign finance laws … Anything less would violate the confidence and trust in our justice system.” [available here.]
And this statement was not as strident as the many statements that assert that the NY County District Attorney is engaged in a political hit job.
So both my parents’ case and Trump’s case --- and perhaps future cases --- have political elements. The politics reinforced the government’s case against my parents but today’s politics act as a roadblock to holding Trump legally accountable for his crimes. I think Trump’s claims about the FBI, the Courts and the Justice Department are bogus. Why? And why am I disgusted by the knee-jerk reaction of virtually every Republican office holder decrying Trump’s prosecution?
I apologize for sounding impatient but here’s the difference. Every charge I and my family have made against the United States government’s behavior in my parents’ case is backed up by documentary evidence. Anyone reading this commentary has the ability to read any of the references presented here and check out the footnotes which almost always refer to US government documents (Grand Jury testimony, FBI reports, deciphered Soviet messages between NY and Moscow during World War II) or Soviet era documents made available for a short period in the 1990s.
On the other hand, Trump and his cult followers have made lots of accusations but they have presented NO EVIDENCE WHATSOEVER to support their attacks on the District Attorney of NY County, the District Attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, the Attorney General of NY State, or the Special Counsel appointed by the Attorney General to investigate Trump’s mishandling of documents after he left the Presidency and his complicity in creating the January 6 insurrection which attempted to thwart the will of the people (which had elected Joe Biden President) by stopping the certification of the Electoral College votes. Check out in detail what Trump says. He accuses the people investigating him of being biased and “hating” him. But he has not said one word or presented a single fact to counter the charges that have been levied against him both officially by the NY County Grand Jury and by the January 6 Congressional Committee. Instead of attempting to refute their charges, he just calls names.
But at the end of the day. Facts have to matter. Evidence has to matter. If there is ever a jury trial on any of these charges, Trump will have his day in court and he’ll be able to attempt to refute his accusers. My family and I have refuted the accusations against my mother from the government’s own records. We have refuted the atomic espionage attack on my father using Soviet era documents. That’s the difference, and that’s why I have no sympathy nor support for Trump and his cult followers’ attacks on the FBI, the Justice Department or the Courts of NY County and Fulton County Georgia.
Though many MAGA Republicans remain in thrall to Trump --- the rest of us should still be able to understand reality.
Michael Meeropol is professor emeritus of Economics at Western New England University. He is the author with Howard and Paul Sherman of the recently published second edition of Principles of Macroeconomics: Activist vs. Austerity Policies
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.