Malpractice?

September 12, 2020

In 2008, the CEO of J.P. Morgan, Jamie Dimon, accused many in the financial services industry of committing financial malpractice. Unfortunately, financial malpractice was not a crime so no one went to jail. In my opinion, it was more than financial malpractice, but that is a separate conversation. Fast forward to today, and Joe Biden called out Trump’s coronavirus response or lack thereof as almost criminal. I think we can all agree that Trump is guilty of political malpractice, but is it worse than that? Is it criminal? Should we lock him up? I think it is outrageous that anyone would consider locking up a political opponent. Who would say such a thing, but I digress?

Negligence may be a better way to analyze the situation. The distinction between recklessness and criminal negligence lies in the presence or absence of foresight as to the prohibited consequences. Recklessness is usually described as a “malfeasance” where the defendant knowingly exposes another to the risk of injury. Criminal negligence is a “misfeasance” or “nonfeasance” where the fault lies in the failure to foresee and so allow otherwise avoidable dangers to manifest. In some cases this failure can rise to the level of willful blindness where the individual intentionally avoids admitting to the reality of a situation. Thank you, Wikipedia.

At best, in his handling of the pandemic, Donald Trump has been reckless. At worst, he is guilty of criminal negligence and willful blindness. If it were you or I, we would be in big trouble.