Trumped-Up Charges Coming Against Trump?
If it weren’t for the exhilarating upsets and excitement of March Madness I think many Americans would be so despondent at the state of our politics that window ledges across the country would be standing room only.
I’m not sure which is more discouraging: The specter of the politically motivated prosecution of a former president and current presidential candidate on - pardon the pun - what appear to be trumped-up campaign finance charges, or Donald Trump’s call to his supporters on social media to protest if he is arrested and “take back our country.” With no instruction to keep those protests peaceable.
Maybe Trump figured, “Why bother?”
Remember, on January 6th 2021 Trump urged his supporters in Washington to march to the Capitol to “peacefully protest” the election results. An exculpatory caveat that the January 6th Committee conveniently left out of their slick “It’s All Trump’s Fault” video production.
The Democrats are on their knees right now - as much as libs are ever on their knees, in prayer anyway - hoping for images of violent pro-Trump protests that they can splash across television ads during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
Don’t take the bait, Trump loyalists.
But wait, you say, I thought you were a Trump loyalist - or a “Trumptard” as the enlightened left likes to call the former president’s voters.
I was a Trump voter, but I would prefer a different candidate this time.
In fact, I’ve been looking forward to the moment on the presidential debate stage when Gov. Ron DeSantis looks at Trump and says what I’ve wanted to say to him for three years: “At a time when your country needed you the most, you handed your presidency over to Anthony Fauci.”
Yes, I soured on Trump three years ago when he joined America’s grinning self-appointed public health “experts” on stage to gleefully announce their giant science experiment involving lockdowns and closures for the entire country.
It was wildly irresponsible, not rooted in science and we are still paying the price for such unmitigated - not to mention unconstitutional - arrogance.
DeSantis quickly defied the health “experts” in 2020 and Florida became a beacon of hope for many of us.
But back to what’s happening now in New York. A Manhattan Democrat district attorney appears to be ready to charge the former president with a crime: Leaks from the prosecutor’s office indicate that $130,000 in funds from Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign were allegedly used improperly to reimburse his lawyer, that sleazebucket Michael Cohen, who was allegedly delivering hush funds to porn star Stormy Daniels.
A seedy tale of lust and payoffs.
While extra-marital affairs are immoral, they aren’t illegal. Neither is hush money.
What would be illegal - and immoral, if anyone still cared about such things - would be to use campaign funds to buy the silence of a porn star who slept with a candidate.
Shoot, even the relentlessly left-wing, Trump-loathing New York Times concedes that the prosecution of Trump on this stuff is problematic:
“The case against the former president hinges on an untested and therefore risky legal theory involving a complex interplay of laws, all amounting to a low-level felony…”
“It would not be a simple case. Prosecutors are expected to use a legal theory that has not been assessed in New York courts, raising the possibility that a judge could throw out or limit the charges. The episode has been examined by both the Federal Election Commission and federal prosecutors in New York; neither took action against Mr. Trump.”
In an interview last week, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, who’s written a new book “Get Trump” about the left’s determination to derail Trump’s quest to regain the presidency using the U.S. judicial system, said any indictments brought against Trump in either New York or Washington are likely to result in a conviction.
Not on the merits of the cases, but on the make-up of the jury.
Dershowitz, who was part of Trump’s legal team on his first impeachment, claims he doesn’t like Trump, has never voted for Trump and looks “forward to voting against him for a third time.”
What he doesn’t want is for the legal system to be used by political operatives to remove a political opponent.
This constitutional law expert worries that the cherished principles of due process and equal protection under the law are at stake in the actions of highly political prosecutors in New York, Georgia and elsewhere regarding Trump. The indictment of a former president is so unprecedented that Dershowitz cautions that it can never be for anything other than the most serious crimes.
Campaign finance, though?
No criminal charges were lodged. No one was arrested.
Some - including Elon Musk - are suggesting that if Trump is arrested it will turn him into a political martyr and increase his odds of winning in 2024.
Others, like Chris Christie, say it will not.
“Being indicted never helps anybody,” Christie said on ABC Sunday. “It's not a help."
More importantly, it’s not a help to the country. Once the U.S. heads down this road, there’s no going back.
