President Biden's statements since the seditious, violent attack on Congress reflect a commitment to heal this nation's deep wounds and division. The damage inflicted upon this country by right wing extremists and white nationalists has been so profound that Biden, like Abraham Lincoln at the end of the Civil War, will struggle to find the path to healing and reconciliation for a country on the brink of destruction. Lincoln inspired a torn nation with these words, etched in marble at the Lincoln Memorial: "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God give us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds … ." Biden will need much more than Lincolnesque inspiration for America to heal its deep wounds.

The first step toward reconciliation is a public uncovering of the painful truth of Trump's autocratic rule. Any hope for reconciliation without a public reckoning is doomed to fail. The answer is the formation of an independent United States Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) patterned after the South Africa experience following the end of Apartheid.

While the criminal law and prosecutors are in the best position to ensure that criminals are held accountable, much more is required to achieve national healing and reconciliation. Prosecutors are constrained by criminal law's limitations, which often require secrecy and result in final dispositions without public trials. Further, the criminal law will not expose the full panoply of human and civil rights abuses committed through immoral and undemocratic policies that were not criminal but served as the oxygen for the rise of seditious and racist movements. America's TJRC will not replace prosecutors but work hand in hand with them to achieve justice while having America bear witness to the horrors of Trump's presidency and the bigotry it unleashed.