A US attorney quietly enacted democratic process against a president’s rhetoric

Evidence

The day after the attack, Joon H. Kim, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, made a public appearance to explain to a stunned national audience the charges quickly brought against Saipov. He commended the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for their swift action. Agents had collected the perpetrator’s cell phones—“conducted pursuant to a court ordered wiretap,” Kim carefully added. Agents had interrogated the suspect and gotten a confession in what was, Kim carefully added, a “Mirandized interview.” He reminded viewers of the number of infamous terrorists who had been successfully prosecuted and sentenced through the regular federal system. He did not mention Trump or his delegitimating attacks on the system of justice. He did not have to. He enacted the role of responsible US attorney. He exhibited dignity and confidence in legal due processes. It was a moment of democratic pedagogy. — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 359

Categorization

• CANDY: A neat concrete story — the prosecutor who answered a president’s Gitmo demand simply by calmly explaining the regular legal steps.
• XREF: connects to: State officials defeated Trump’s voter-fraud commission by refusing data — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New…, 357