The term “kangaroo court” has seemed an apt and amusing term to apply to the trial of former President Donald Trump in Manhattan during the past month. But now that, for the first time in history, a former president has been found guilty of felony indictments, it cannot be regarded as anything other than a dark day for the nation. Jurors decided Trump was guilty on all 34 counts, carrying the possibility of more than 100 years of jail time for business record violations that occurred over a decade ago.
It is a dark day, not because of the guilty verdicts but because this trial has been a travesty from start to finish. It is clear, first of all, that no one other than Trump would have been charged in this way. No one other than Trump would have had a prosecutor concoct such an absurd and disgraceful list of charges and twist the law to do so. It is indisputable that no person has ever been prosecuted as a felon for the misdemeanor recordkeeping crimes as Trump was. It’s odd, isn’t it, that the only person ever so charged should be a former president, the much-hated opponent of the current incumbent, who is leading in the polls only five months before Election Day. The only reason Trump was charged and convicted of this crime is because he is Trump. This is what banana republics do.
Thursday’s verdict is the culmination of a series of smaller menacing events that, when put together, constitute a severe threat to the rule of law in our democracy. A foreign billionaire bent on reimagining our entire justice system paid for the election of a radical prosecutor who explicitly ran on the promise of persecuting Trump. That case was put before a partisan judge who donated to President Joe Biden and whose daughter has profited from Biden’s political career. That judge then rigged a jury, stacking the deck with absurd rulings and instructions, causing even liberal judicial observers to call into question the propriety of the proceedings.
All this took place in a city where the very same radical prosecutor lets repeat violent offenders off without any jail time, and Biden himself lets illegal immigrants run free.
TRUMP GUILTY IN MANHATTAN HUSH MONEY CASE
What transpired Thursday isn’t justice. It is election interference. It is a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system for nakedly partisan purposes that will tarnish our democracy for a long time, perhaps permanently.
One must hope that this conviction will be overturned on appeal and that the process of appeal will be conducted with more fairness and probity than the original trial. We expect that Trump will ultimately be vindicated in this case, whether at the state Supreme Court or the U.S. Supreme Court. It will show that our justice system is not dead yet.
But justice delayed is justice denied. And the appeals process means justice will be delayed and denied beyond the election. From now until then, Democrats will refer always to Trump as a “convicted felon.” That is what the prosecutor went to work for, that is what the Democratic Party wanted, and that is what it got.
Severe damage has been inflicted on the democratic process. Using the justice system as a political weapon is an appalling turn for America. Make no mistake, this was nakedly partisan lawfare, and it has loosed a terrible precedent into our politics. More political prosecutions are on the way.
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Till then, Democrats might want to remember the wisdom of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who told then-Nevada Democratic Sen. Harry Reid after he nuked the filibuster for judicial appointees, “You will regret this. You may regret this a lot sooner than you think.”