The dozens of cases against former President Donald Trump from various jurisdictions across the country have always had much more nuance around them than either side is willing to admit. While his most ardent supporters were and are wrong to dismiss them ALL out of hand as political lawfare (there’s definitely not “nothing” to the documents case, even if overblown), there is also a strong element of truth to the accusation. Because, particularly in the Manhattan case, lawfare appears to be the primary driving force (besides, of course, Alvin Bragg’s desire to be famous, but two things can definitely be true, especially here).
To try Trump, or ANYONE for that matter, on 34 FELONY counts of “falsifying business records” simply because payments to his own attorney - some of which went towards a futile attempt to keep an extramarital affair secret - were entered as “legal services,” defies any pretense of credulity. For anyone other than blatant political targets, such a “crime,” if prosecutors even bothered, would be a misdemeanor paperwork violation. For Trump, however, apparently it’s a felony for which he should be removed from free society. I don’t mean to be crass here, but what the hell?
I didn’t want Trump to be nominated again, as anyone who reads this column knows, but it should be obvious to anyone with half an objective brain that the system is attempting to punish Trump for the “crime” of winning the 2016 election. I mean, what else could it possibly be? A strong argument could even be made that the documents case, in which Trump truly has been his own worst enemy, is an example of selective prosecution based on the fact that no other guilty politician is even being considered for punishment. But these Manhattan charges, and the show trial attempting to lend credence to them, are so absurd, so outlandish, so petty, so Stalinesque that even Trump’s biggest detractors should consider coming to the conclusion that the man deserves another presidential term just for being forced to show up and pretend to take it all seriously.
Needless to say, the initial Manhattan indictment resulted in a huge primary polling bump for Trump. It cemented support with enough of the GOP electorate to the extent that no other candidate had a snowball’s chance. In hindsight, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, and all the others should have probably dropped out as soon as that ball dropped, because nothing they said or did going forward was going to matter.
At the time, though I felt bad for Trump in that regard (prison, really?), I felt that choosing him as the nominee was akin to an NFL team starting a quarterback with a broken leg. Just or not, he would still be spending weeks in court instead of campaigning, and a felony conviction, even if it didn’t result in immediate jail time, would likely peel off a critical percentage of voters he would need in a close election. Best to go with somebody without all the baggage, especially the legal stuff, I thought.
And maybe that thought process will turn out to be right in the end. But, and I’m actually happy to admit this, maybe not. Considering the venue and the obvious political slant of the jury pool, I fully expected a conviction in the sham Manhattan case regardless of the merits. Now, for the first time, there are solid reasons to think the Dems may not get their conviction. Even CNN’s Anderson Cooper is doubting the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen. So yeah, this case has become such a sh*tshow that even a leftist jury in a leftist city may not find the grounds to convict even if they wanted to. At the very least, we may be looking at a hung jury. That, along with the fact that the other trials likely won't proceed until after the election, could mean that Trump's biggest obstacle, that of being a convicted felon on election day, will be removed.
Take Joe Biden’s historic incompetencies and a non-felon Trump who retains the up to 9% of current supporters who, however misguided, would consider abandoning him if he were convicted, and it’s quite possible we could have ourselves a competitive election. I never thought I’d even consider writing this just a few months ago, but here we are.
Wouldn’t it be the greatest cosmic justice of all if Alvin Bragg continues to fall flat on his face, fails to obtain a conviction, and ends up being a key reason why Donald Trump again becomes his president?