82
Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 4:30 PM Eastern Daylight Time
Bill Ruppert sat, masked, across from the Attorney General, who was unmasked, at a metal table in an interrogation cell. Two security men, also unmasked, stood at ease behind and on either side of the AG.
“You want to Mirandize me, Paul?”
“There’s no need for that,” the Attorney General answered.
“There isn’t? Then what exactly am I doing here?”
“I have to apologize for that. Apparently, an overzealous law enforcement officer overstepped his boundaries. We’ll have you out of here before you know it. Just some paperwork to be filled out and we’ll have you on your way.”
Bill sat with his arms folded and stared at the AG.
“Is this what you signed up for, Paul?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Is this what you signed up for? To oversee the rise of a dictatorship? And for this… this man?”
“Now that’s not fair, Bill. We go back a long way.”
“We do. Which makes this so much worse.”
The AG shook his head slowly. “I thought you would understand. The big picture. The threats we face.”
“What threats? I understand the threat of this lawless, ignorant creature being President and getting rid of anyone in government who knows how to do his or her job. I understand the threat of elections being perverted by nations that have only the worst of intentions for us. I understand the threat of a president who is willing to force the entire United States federal government to become just an arm of his perpetual re-election campaign. Each of these threats is a reason why this man should not be president, and everything he has done must be completely repudiated and reversed. And I’m just scratching the surface with these. Now what,” Bill said, leaning across the table, “can you possibly put on the other side of the scales that could come close to outweighing the threats I’ve identified here?”
“If you feel so strongly about this, then why didn’t you tell the world that he had broken the law? We all expected you to,” the AG said in an oily voice, leaning back and clasping his hands together. “You were the one person in the world that could have stopped all these allegedly terrible things from happening. But you didn’t.”
“I didn’t. Because I trusted in you. And in the Department. And in the Congress. And in the Republicans in the Senate. And, god help me, in this administration. To draw the obvious conclusions. To do the right thing.”
“But you weren’t willing to do the right thing, as you describe it, yourself. You didn’t think it was your job. Well, I can say to you that I trusted you to tell me what the right thing was. If the President broke the law, I expected you to tell me that he had. You did not. I relied on your judgment. Was I wrong?”
Bill was silent.
“But you asked me what was on the other side of the scales. I’ll tell you what’s in that side. Our sacred religious liberty is in that side. Our European Christian culture. Our system of free enterprise. And our freedom from an overreaching federal government.”
Bill scoffed. “You have the gall to say that to me? Your prisoner? A prisoner of that very same overreaching federal government?”
“As I said, that was a mistake. A mistake that will be rectified shortly.”
“But not until the President announces my arrest at his rally, right?”
This time it was the AG’s turn to be silent.
“It’s true, isn’t it? This was a publicity stunt for your boss’ political campaign for an unconstitutional third term.”
“You say ‘unconstitutional.’ But you know that could change. Republicans in the Senate could pass an amendment to the Constitution that would make that quite constitutional. We have four years to work on that.”
Bill shook his head. “What happened to your ethics, Paul? How can you justify this lawless behavior?”
“Laws come from God Almighty, Bill. God is the source of all legitimacy.”
“You talk like some medieval jesuitical philosopher.”
“Well, the Dominicans actually educated me.”
“Well, even Jesuits don’t make the arguments you make.”
“Well, the Jesuits have lost their way. They have been corrupted by the same Marxist humanism and secularism that are destroying our culture. We need clarity in this country, Bill. We need lines. We need rules. We need respect for authority. We need walls.”
“We need to shoot children and families at the border?”
“That too was an unfortunate mistake.”
“So many unfortunate mistakes, Paul. Your luck is really bad lately,” Bill said heatedly. “Let me ask you this, Paul. Your boss is a libertine, an ignoramus. He abuses the powers of his office for his own benefit. In fact, he runs the entire United States government as if it is his own property and plaything. You serve this wildly undependable leader. How can this be a rational or moral course?”
“You remember the play ‘A Man for All Seasons?’”
“Yes. Are you seriously comparing yourself to Thomas More?”
“I’m saying that even Thomas More made some accommodations to Henry VIII.”
“He stood against him in the end.”
“Well, the end is not here yet.”
“So you pretend that some fine day you will have had enough, and you will publicly break with the President, refuse to take his oath of loyalty. Well, everyone knows that you came in after a series of other men refused to promise unthinking loyalty to this President, and you for a year and more enthusiastically used the machinery of this sacred Department to pursue and harry anyone who had the temerity to place his or her oath to the Constitution above this President’s crude personal interest. You’ll pardon me, but from my position, you look far more like Torquemada to me. Or maybe Thomas More’s captor, Thomas Cromwell, who had no scruples about using torture and lies and coercion to advance his own standing in Henry’s corrupt court. And Cromwell of course ended up executing More,” Bill said.
“How dramatic. I can assure you, Bill, that you will be released unharmed and allowed to go home with an apology. No one here is sharpening an axe.”
“I’d like to talk to my attorney now.”
“Yes, of course, Bill. Though there are no charges pending. Did someone give you the idea that you were under arrest? That was a mistake. But there may be a problem with bringing your lawyer in. We actually had reached out to your attorney, after speaking with your wife and getting his name from her – it’s Jack, from your former firm, right? – Well, when we called him, he denied that he was your personal attorney. He said there was some mistake, that he was merely your former law partner.”
Bill stared at him intently. He decided not to give Paul the satisfaction of a reaction. At length he spoke.
“Well, if you are not charging me, I at least ask you to have the decency to let me leave this facility from a private exit, away from the cameras and reporters.”
“What cameras and reporters? We have no interest in publicizing this. This was an unfortunate error, nothing more.”
“An overzealous law enforcement officer,” Bill said. “Sure.”
The AG rose from his chair. The two guards stood to attention in response.
“So long, my friend,” the AG said. “I hope you have an uneventful journey home, and a peaceful retirement.”
Bill did not respond.
© 2020 Nolan O’Brian