Trump demanded Guantánamo detention in the Saipov attack

Evidence

Enacting democracy is vital even when it is not aimed at combatting specific conspiracist charges. Consider the US attorney who, in the face of political pressure to subvert regular practice, explained the legal process of criminal prosecution. On Halloween night in 2017, Sayfullo Saipov, a legal US resident, used a rented truck to strike cyclists, pedestrians, and a school bus in a terrorist attack in New York City. Eight people died and others were wounded. Trump went immediately on Twitter to say, “Send him to Gitmo!”—the controversial detention facility at Guantanamo, Cuba, that falls outside the regular justice system. The president called our system of justice a “joke” and a “laughingstock.” He demanded capital punishment for “the animal.” — Russell Muirhead and Nancy L. Rosenblum, A Lot of People Are Saying, 358