You don’t have to be a Republican or a Donald Trump fan to know that Friday’s verdict in a New York courtroom is an audacious attempt by New York Democrats to bankrupt the likely Republican candidate for president. Or at the very least, confiscate all of his liquid assets.

If they can’t throw him in prison or get his name off ballots Democrats want to cripple Trump financially as a way to rig the 2024 election.

Yet the former president is the threat to democracy? I beg to differ.

These same Democrats who denounce Vladimir Putin for imprisoning his political rival Alexei Navalny, who died under suspicious circumstances in a Russian gulag last week, are cheering attempts to put Joe Biden’s political rival in prison.

What the Democrats are attempting to do to Trump may not prove deadly, but it is born out of the same autocratic, undemocratic desires as Putin’s to quash political opposition by any means necessary.

It’s just a matter of degree.

Of all the - pardon the expression - trumped up charges against him, perhaps the nuttiest were the accusations in the New York civil fraud trial that claimed the former president inflated the value of his real estate holdings in order to secure loans at favorable interest rates.

These were loans that were repaid in full plus interest, making the lenders plenty of money.

Realizing that the case against Trump may have frightened other businessmen who may have also routinely exaggerated the value of their holdings, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul this weekend reassured them that they “have nothing to worry about.”

She should have added, “unless you decide to run for president as a Republican.”

No one was damaged by Trump’s financial representations, the banks were happy to do business with the real estate mogul, yet New York Judge Arthur Engoron, a clown of a jurist who spent most of his time mugging for the cameras, levied fines of $354 million plus interest against Trump and limited his ability to conduct business in New York for three years. He also fined Donald Trump Jr., and Eric Trump $4 million each.

This astronomically insane verdict, which totals $450 million with interest, may be overturned by a higher court. But not before Trump has spent millions more on legal fees and wasted weeks or months in courtrooms.

Remember, the civil charges against Trump were brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who campaigned for office on a promise to get Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump’s legal team is awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision on Colorado’s decision to remove his name from the ballot and he’s preparing to fight criminal indictments in several states. Yet another legal team is waiting to see what will happen in a Fulton County, Ga. courtroom where the prosecutor who brought RICO charges against Trump appears to have been running a money laundering operation with her boyfriend.

To all but the most partisan hacks it’s clear what is happening around the country: Democrats are so filled with loathing for Donald Trump that they are weaponizing the justice system against him.

One of the most vocal opponents of this alarming attempt to interfere in the 2024 election is liberal Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. One of America’s leading defenders of civil liberties, he’s denounced all of the Democrat attempts to use “law fare” to get Trump.

In fact, he penned a book this year called just that: “Get Trump.”

Dershowitz is fond of saying he voted against Trump twice and looks forward to doing so again this year. Many in his party want to remove that opportunity from the electorate.

Pity too many other Democrats are so afraid of the likely GOP nominee that they’re adopting a totalitarian approach to eradicate their political rival.

This is dangerous and undemocratic.

We need sane Democrats like Dershowitz to demand it stop so that they can once again cast a ballot for or against the candidate of their choice.