Richard Rich: “To get at the Devil, I should tear down all the laws in England.”
Thomas Moore: “Indeed. And when you have done so and the Devil turns round on you, where
will you hide, the laws all being flat?”
The above exchange from Robert Bolt’s play “A Man for All Seasons” well illustrates the state to which Democrats have brought us. In their irrational rage to “get” the current Republican candidate for president, Democrats have perverted the judicial process, suborned perjury, violated ethics and twisted the law into strange new forms – all to be able to call Donald Trump a “convicted felon.” And they finally got what they think they wanted – at least until the whole stinking tub of effluent is thrown out on review.
Trump will survive. The rule of law on which our Republic relies, on the other hand, has been seriously wounded. Perhaps fatally.
The New York proceeding against Donald Trump was a show trial of which Laverty Beria would have been proud. Manufactured charges, a political judge whose daughter makes money from a guilty verdict, a jury picked from the deepest of blue districts. Round-the-clock media coverage, most of which echoed the French revolutionary mob: “Guillotine! Guillotine!”
What was the specific criminal action on which this novel legal house of cards was based? In all 34 indictments, the phrase “,,,with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime…” appears. The “other crime” is never specified in the charges, but is clearly the New York election statute and the Federal Election Act, both of which Judge Merchan dealt with in his unusual charge to the jury.
For jurors uneasy about finding the leading presidential candidate guilty of an unnamed crime, Judge Merchan’s instructions were probably a balm. He helpfully noted that “Under our law, although the People must prove an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof, they need not prove that the other crime was in fact committed, aided, or concealed…” He added that “…In order to prove an intent to defraud, the People need not
prove that the defendant acted with the intent to defraud any particular person or entity. A general intent to defraud any person or entity suffices.” So if Donald Trump did everything alleged to keep his naughtiness from Melania, not the American public, he’s still a freakin’ fraudster. Get him.
Merchan also noted that jurors needn’t unanimously choose which of the specific methods of violation of electoral statutes Trump used. They could pick among any of the three mentioned in statutes. If the jurors who chose anything added up to twelve, he’s guilty, guilty, guilty.
This point is of enormous importance, since it is the Federal crime – unprosecuted by the DOJ or the Federal election Commission and unnamed in the indictments – that resurrected the local charges prosecuted by DA Bragg from the grave of time limitation. Playing fast and loose here discredited the entire process and is a historical black mark against the judiciary of New York.
Doubtless there are already initiatives prepared by Democrat legislators in states where their party rules to prevent the name of any “convicted felon” from appearing on the ballot. And there will be other glory-seeking prosecutors in the bluer areas of the country who will scheme up other indictments against the 45th president and his supporters. The sickness that will flow from this case will eventually reach to all corners of the Republic, polluting both the upcoming election and any chance our tripartite government had of redeeming itself. Once trust is lost it will not be easily nor quickly regained.
Our Liberal friends should also remember that if one kicks a dog enough, it will bite. Eventually some enterprising and amoral conservative District Attorney in a deep red state will try his or her hand; we’ll see the sitting president indicted as an accessory before the fact in a murder committed by a thrice-deported illegal alien, in the country again because Joe Biden deliberately obliterated our Southern border. That will solve nothing, but it will turn up the heat significantly.
In their obsessive hatred for a single man, Democrats have in the space of a few years smashed the laws flat and destroyed most of the residual respect Americans had for both the political and judicial branches of government – which is to say, the entire edifice. Well done, all.
The Republic is gone, as Dr. Franklin seemed to foresee. In place of the law, bananas. And the Devil is turning.
