Opinion

Trump falls victim to a prostituted court of law — more reason for the court of public opinion to vote out Biden in November

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan got their way Thursday, maneuvering a jury of former President Donald Trump’s peers into finding him guilty of . . . something.

We’ll have to wait to find out exactly what, since Merchan had told the jurors they didn’t even have to agree on what exactly Trump did wrong: They could individually choose any of the (vague) theories the prosecution presented as to what other crime was committed to turn the supposed misdemeanors into felonies.

The violations of basic fairness in the trial were legion: Merchan wouldn’t let the defense call an expert witness to testify that no federal campaign-finance law was violated; he routinely shut down the defense while letting the prosecution get away with gross violations, including telling  multiple outright lies in its closing statement.

Donald Trump
Former President Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts Thursday. via REUTERS

Not to mention indulging graphic and utterly irrelevant testimony from Stormy Daniels.

In this context, you can see why jurors didn’t realize that the only testimony indicating criminal intent on Trump’s part (something utterly necessary for a guilty verdict) came from Michael Cohen, a confessed serial liar who admitted to a personal vendetta against the defendant.

Nor see that Bragg’s team didn’t even show that Trump had actually falsified any business records.

All that should get the verdict tossed on appeal, but for now President Biden’s campaign can and will call Trump a “convicted felon” every minute through Election Day.

That is: Bragg and Merchan have completely prostituted the justice system for a purely political purpose.

Bragg ran for office vowing to get Trump; he coordinated with the Biden Justice Department in reviving a case that his immediate predecessor had refused to bring, one centering on charges that the feds had refused to pursue — and tried it in the courtroom of a judge whose daughter is a Democratic operative.

A judge who, again, repeatedly proved himself in the tank for the prosecution.

Whether the verdict will actually harm Trump’s chances in November is another grand unknown: Some polling even suggests that the guilty verdict will help him among likely voters — because it’s proof that Democrats have weaponized the justice system against him.

Which they certainly have.

And so given reason even to voters furious at Trump over Jan. 6 to choose him over Biden, because this lawfare campaign (along with the perversion of justice to protect Hunter Biden, and so Joe) is an obscene assault on the pillars of our democracy.

As is, by the way, the left’s yearslong attack on the legitimacy of the entire US Supreme Court, simply because some rulings don’t go the progressives’ way.

The rule of law — including impartial courts and ethical prosecutors — is fundamental to the survival of this republic, and of trust in democracy.

Yet most of the modern Democratic Party that Biden happily leads (or, arguably, is led by) cares only about power.

All Biden’s other disasters aside, that by itself is ample reason for the court of public opinion to vote him out come Election Day.