So, somebody finally went ahead and did it. After years of various threats, a Democratic prosecutor indicted former president Donald Trump.
I suspect, when historians look back, this will be another of those occasions widely recognized as when the excrement really impacted the device for creating air current via the revolution of pitched blades.
For the entirety of our nation’s existence, local prosecutors indicting a current or former president, or presidential candidate, has been a threshold never crossed. Doing so was recognized as a dive into banana republic territory. Additionally, it has been recognized that whatever one political party does, the other will follow suit. Apparently, the “get Trump” mentality has gotten so focused that certain payback is no longer an effective deterrent.
As this was written, the indictment hadn’t been released, so we only know expert speculation. Maybe they found a stolen nuke in Trump Tower, and this entire column is moot.
Unlikely, because the topic of the grand jury wasn’t a life-or-death situation. It was about paying $130,000 to buy the silence of a former porn star over an affair, and it has been investigated endlessly since first revealed. The case against Mr. Trump was seen as such a dog that nobody wanted to move it forward. The list of those who could have done so was by no means full of Trump supporters.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg apparently thinks he has found a winnable case where all the others couldn’t. The dogged pursuit in this instance doesn’t pass the smell test.
Don’t think Mr. Bragg is a strict law-and-order prosecutor who can’t bear to see any violation of the criminal code unpunished. He made waves when he informed his staff he would no longer prosecute for a long list of crimes, including resisting arrest and prostitution. He is also a big proponent of leniency for nearly every crime.
If the case unfolds as predicted, it will involve pursuing it as a campaign violation. The mantra from the left is now, “Nobody is above the law!” That rigid ideal would appear to be situationally flexible, including presidential campaigns violating the law.
Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign paid one of the largest fines ever, $375k levied by the Federal Election COmmission, for reporting violations.
Hilary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC agreed to pay a $113,000 FCC fine for misreporting the money which paid for the infamous Steele Dossier.
Her unlawful handling of classified emails is also well known.
Neither former president Obama nor Secretary Clinton faced jail time, or calls for it from the left.
When Mr. Trump was discovered to have classified documents locked up at his home, they sure wanted him jailed. But, when it turned out President Joe Biden had classified documents in his unsecured garage, the demand stopped.
“Nobody is above the law” is a battle cry today, and the left has cheered Trump investigations for the better part of a decade. Each would finally be the case which would bring down Trump, and his entire family.
Funny how the same people have been completely disinterested in looking into the potential illegalities exposed by Hunter Biden’s laptop, even potential ties to the current president. Will they now support partisan prosecutors digging forever until they find some convoluted way to bring charges against President Biden?
Of course not. And the idea of that becoming standard is appalling and an actual threat to our democracy.
The coverage of the indictment has been surprising. As expected, media on the right has been all over it, expressing outrage. Elsewhere, it’s been sparse. You would have expected more corwing, but the mood is more tempered. Something along the lines of cautiously pleased, but mixed with a warning it will be a tough case to win.
The indictment is seen as dubious enough there has even been speculation on the left about it being politically driven. For example, progressive Vox ran an article on how to tell when an investigation is politicized.
“They’re fishing expeditions - starting focused on one topic, and sprawling very far afield, often lasting years.
“They focus on obscure or technical matters.
“They feature novel legal theories.
“They resemble few previous prosecutions.
“Investigators are internally divided on the case’s strength.
“They involve scrutiny and an investment of resources that would not have been put to anyone else.
“Those is charge of them have obvious political motives.”
With a few qualifications, the author, Andrew Prokop, conceded all those elements are present in this case. (Including the disclaimer that Mr. Trump has been and continues to be a grave threat to democracy.)
Going forward, the smart money is on the indictment being a guarantee of Mr. Trump winning the 2024 Republican nomination. That’s one thing on which Trump backers and haters agree.
Some of the haters are even saying it’s the prime reason behind bringing the charges. They want a Trump candidacy because it’s believed he can’t possibly win the general election. That’s not necessarily a bad bet; Mr. Trumps negative numbers are awful.
What those folks can’t know is the extent of how this indictment plays out with voters. Americans generally hate anything that reeks of injustice.
The Democrats seem to have forgotten wanting to run against Mr. Trump back in 2016 because he was seen as the easiest candidate to beat. We all remember how that turned out.
