News organs are filled these days with excited reports on the numerous prosecutions of former president Donald Trump. These are sponsored by Democrat-leaning district attorneys at local and state levels, who feel suddenly empowered to clap the Bad Guy in irons and possibly throw him in the pokey. At last count, 88 charges have been brought and are awaiting trial. Meanwhile, Big Media reporters and editors who hate The Donald are turning rhetorical handsprings over this “historical” campaign to prosecute a former president for actions he took while in office, or for common business practices, and prevent him from winning a second term in office.
Even conservative reporters are speculating breathlessly on whether state and local legal systems prosecuting a former president can actually deliver a knockout-blow – as though this were a sporting bout between Sumo-heavyweights, and not a total trashing of our governing compact. That compact is the 250-year agreement between all legitimate political factions to let elected officials – including the president – govern, free of legal prosecution for their official actions. Impeachment can be invoked while a president is in office, but does not apply after his term ends.
Local and state-level prosecutors claim that they are not trashing that compact, but are justly prosecuting Donald Trump because he is a uniquely lawless individual who should not have been president in the first place, and must not be allowed to gain the office again.
These are deep and dangerous legal and political waters for the country – uncharted, and never before traversed in our history. Even the Civil War – a large-scale political reaction to the 1860 presidential election – was undertaken by eleven states, not by a few individuals trying to bring down an individual by harnessing the legal system in radical new ways.
A trial now underway in New York City will adjudicate charges that the former president falsified his company’s internal records to obscure the true nature of “hush money” payments made to bury negative stories about him during his 2016 presidential race. Legal scholars and political analysts are not in agreement on whether paying “hush money” – often part of a “non-disclosure agreement” – is illegal, or whether hiding its purpose for political reasons is some kind of crime. Prosecutors are confident that the average guy-on-the-street will think it is dirty dealing.
In the pre-trial phase of the New York judicial circus, imperious presiding Judge Juan Merchan issued a gag-order on Mr. Trump – as though he were a dangerous criminal or unbalanced nut-case who might corrupt the jury and the entire trial by using his public bullhorn to describe and protest the proceedings. Mr. Trump continues to defy the gag-order, which he denounces as “illegal,” so Democrat-partisans are calling for him to be jailed. But thus far no actions in that direction have been taken. Outright imprisonment is obviously the hope and intention of some.
Can the Get-Trump bandwagon actually get that far? Can a former president, now running for another term, be thrown into prison to stop him from being re-elected? Left-leaning Big Media types are acting as though Mr. Trump is just some ordinary shmo who has run afoul of the law and will get the punishment he deserves. And prosecutors all over the country – seeing visions of the fame and fortune that awaits them for finally bringing down The Donald – are joining the joyous gang who have piled onto the Dems’ bandwagon, hoping to ride it to political glory.
My estimate of all the “legal” circuses is that serious Democrats don’t really expect any of the trials to produce convictions and actual jailing of Mr. Trump. These are simply “show trials,” designed to paint Mr. Trump as totally wicked and lawless, and meant to influence ordinary voters with minimal legal knowledge. These voters are hearing only the loud claims that the president they elected in 2016 has broken numerous laws, so he must not be allowed anywhere near the White House. If Mr. Trump is acquitted, or if he obtains various hung juries, the public will be told that the justice system is “broken,” and must be cleaned up by strong, Democrat-led governance. As Dems see it, the trials are a win-win situation.
Many Republicans are pinning their hopes for Mr. Trump’s clearance on the Supreme Court, but I view such hope as a very slender reed. In the past, other commentators have written that “…the justices read the newspapers, too.” So their reactions to prevailing public attitudes are a possible factor in their decisions. And beyond that – as I have noted in earlier writings – there are no Supreme Court cops to enforce the Court’s rulings. Our system counts on The People – including various arms of federal, state and local governments – to obey and enforce the Supremes’ decisions. This vital aspect of our unwritten ruling “compact” has enabled orderly governance since the country’s founding. But if a sizable faction decides to break that compact, it will be a Herculean job to correct the situation.
The fine print in any contract, or compact, is always the “sticky wicket.” In this case the fine print says that Donald Trump – no matter how much you might hate his policies, his demeanor, or his hair – is not just some schmo off the street. He is a former president of the United States, and currently a major political party’s candidate for the same office. In that status he is protected by an armed Secret Service detail who are charged with his safety and security. At this writing, I have heard only one TV commentator question whether the Secret Service might block any attempt to take Mr. Trump into physical custody. Certainly they would never allow anyone to lay hands on him in any way.
Armed Secret Service agents blocking sheriffs and city or state police from getting anywhere near the former president might surprise some of his political enemies. These might include extremists who have been led to believe that every arm of government can be corrupted the way they have politicized various arms of the Federal government, including the DoJ. But I shall be very surprised if such corruption has actually spread to the Secret Service.
The FBI “raided” Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August 2022 to “seize” classified documents that Biden administration officials claimed Mr. Trump should not have kept. At the time, I noticed – but heard no one else mention – that the FBI carefully chose a time when they knew the former president, and his Secret Service detail would not be present. Presumably, the “locked and loaded” FBI agents – brandishing weapons as if they expected Dillinger to be hiding inside – didn’t want a shootout with the Secret Service at Mar-a-Lago to become their lasting legacy. It would have been great press-fodder, but would have done real harm to the people’s trust. (If I’m mistaken about the Secret Service, then we’re in really serious trouble, going forward.)
The show trials are all about branding Mr. Trump as lawless. Besides that objective, prosecutors and anti-Trump judges hope to keep him tied up in various courtrooms, unable to campaign. (If you can’t jail him, at least keep him off the campaign trail.) But unless I’ve totally misjudged Mr. Trump’s political acumen, he’ll finally bust out of the legal briar-patch and bring a message of encouragement to millions of voters who are hoping (and praying) that he will normalize the nation and restore it to greatness once again.
It’s a lot to lay on one brash, orange-haired New Yorker, but he’ll know where the land-mines are, and who the trustworthy people are, the second time around.

1 comment
Biden is doing exactly what he claims Putin did to his political opponent, Navaldy. Trying to jail his political opponent, Donald Trump, on questionable, fake, criminal charges in New York. Why did Biden wait nearly 3 years to turn the DOJ loose on Trump? Biden, Mike Pence, also both had classified documents, and a grand jury should have made the call about if to indict Pence. Regarding Biden, the Republican controlled US House should have impeached Biden for having classified docs going back to when he was a Senator in his residence and his Chinese funded think tank just down the street from the White House.
Listen carefully, I believe that the Republicans will not impeach Biden because no Republican donors are willing to step up with enough PAC and campaign money for the Republican Party. Congress doesn’t like to do anything with being paid. All legal. Also, I believe that Mike Johnson, now having been baptized into the Democratic Party over the past weekend, was conducting shuttle diplomacy between the White House and Mar-La-Go with meetings/negotiations with both Biden and Trump. I believe that Biden gave Trump something that will eventually ease his legal problems somewhat, in exchange for Trump allowing the Democrat Mike Johnson to pass the SCAM aid bill in the US House. Trump got something from Biden, or, at least he thinks he did, just like Joe Manchin thought he was getting something.
It’s all a corrupt scam. Trump has already been convicted in New York, UNLESS Biden gives him a get out of jail card for passing the SCAM $95 BILLION aid package. Biden has 100% control over all the Trump cases. It’s all crooked.