By Emil Guillermo

Van Jones, the former director of Oakland’s Ella Baker Center, acts as our surrogate when he appears on the mostly white CNN news panels. So, when the news broke Tuesday morning that Donald Trump got a ‘target letter,’ we knew it wasn’t a bill or a credit card pitch from some big box department store.

It was a letter from federal prosecutors to the Trump legal team saying that the former president is a target in their investigation to steal the 2020 election, including being the instigator of the Jan. 6 insurrection.

A ‘target letter’ is usually a signal that an indictment and arrest are imminent.

“Finally, we’re getting down to the real stuff here,” Jones said on CNN. “This is why he’s going to go down in the history books as one of the worst presidents, if not the worst ever as a traitor to his own country and we are finally here.”

But as Jones added later, “What took so long?”

All the other potential crimes?

The letter comes after a pair of criminal indictments that include the one filed by New York City DA Alvin Bragg over hush money payments to a porn star, and the one filed in Florida over the mishandling of classified documents in Mar-a-Lago.

But, as Jones commented, the hush money case may have hurt Trump’s family more. And the documents case, though serious, may not have exposed any national security secrets to our sworn enemies. But this third potential indictment was a crime against the people.

A crime against democracy. And if three strikes isn’t enough, there’s a fourth indictment brewing in Georgia.

Trump responded to the letter in social media, proclaiming innocence, calling it a witch hunt, of course. Then, in all caps, Trump said it was “ALL ABOUT ELECTION INTERFERENCE, AND A COMPLETE AND TOTAL POLTICAL WEAPONIZATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT.”

But a target letter is customary and done as a courtesy for someone under investigation to come in on their own. In this case, Trump said he was told to report as early as Thursday to the Grand Jury.

Certainly, Special Prosecutor Jack Smith wouldn’t have sent the letter had he not had the evidence and the witnesses prepared and ready to make his case.

According to news reports, the letter referred to charges involving conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States, the deprivation of rights, and the tampering of witnesses.

It was the kind of development that gives hope that Trump will be held accountable, and that he is not above the law.

Yet, there were others like House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continuing to keep Trump above us all. He is, after all, the current standard bearer of the Republican party and leading in the latest polls in the race to be the 2024 nominee.

And Republicans want to win at all costs it seems. Even if it means nominating a twice-impeached, potentially three-time indicted former president.

Even Trump’s closest rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, was unable to condemn Trump.

Perhaps because DeSantis is doing his best to outdo Trump himself.

D Santis’ Racist Anti-Asian Law

While the news was focused on Trump’s woes, Asian American groups joined the ACLU in Florida at the first hearing in a lawsuit over one of the most xenophobic policies signed into law by DeSantis this past May.

Last week, when the big news was inflation’s drop to 3% (the goal was 2%), some observers wondered why people seemed underwhelmed.

Maybe it’s because our happiness is connected to more than just the price of gas and eggs.

How can you cheer for an improving economy when your rights and freedoms are eroding before your eyes?

Inflation may be on the decline, but democracy’s in recession.

Rollbacks in abortion and affirmative action were expected. But a call back to alien land laws?

Those were the laws that prevented Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos from buying property in the U.S. going back to 1913. These laws prevented my family from buying property. Yours?

Long gone, such laws are making a comeback now that China has been identified as the nation’s Public Enemy No. 1 by GOP politicos like DeSantis.

In May, before launching his campaign for president, DeSantis approved Senate Bill 264, a discriminatory property law that restricts Chinese citizens from purchasing real estate in Florida. The law makes it a felony for Chinese to buy property in restricted areas near military installations and “critical infrastructure” like airports, wastewater treatment plants, power plants and the like.

And how’s this for negative diversity: Florida’s law also applies to citizens of Cuba, Venezuela, Syria, Iran, Russia, and North Korea, but only makes their violations misdemeanors.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit to stop the new law, saying it unfairly punishes Chinese people for actions of their government when there is no evidence of national security risk.

To justify suspicion, all it takes is your Asian face and name. Is it fair to think all Chinese in America are members of the Chinese Communist Party? The latest Pew Research shows the majority of Asian adults in America are anti-China.

Maybe a third indictment will wake up conservatives still trying to defend or outdo Trump’s bigoted politics.

DeSantis should show some leadership by rescinding his anti-Asian land law.

That would be as hopeful a sign as the imminent third indictment against Donald Trump — the signal of a real turnaround in our country — where our democracy can appear mired in recession.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. He does a reality talk show on www.amok.com

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