This is an opinion column
If there’s one thing I’ve learned about former President Donald Trump, it’s that rumors of his demise are often greatly exaggerated. Just last week, America was assured that a New York grand jury would indict Trump. Now, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecutorial discretion feels a lot more like political miscalculation. Democrats have been looking to put Trump in a prison jumpsuit for years, but liberal fantasies leave more than a reasonable doubt.
When it comes to charging an American citizen with a state or federal crime, the deck is stacked in favor of the prosecutor. Laws vary from state to state, but securing a grand jury indictment requires a lower standard of proof than a criminal conviction. Most grand juries only hear from prosecutors without defense attorneys present.
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If the criminal cases against Trump were particularly strong, prosecutors would have sought indictments years ago. Between the U.S. Department of Justice, Congress, and investigative bodies around the country, prosecutors have plenty of information about what Trump did and didn’t do immediately before becoming president, during his administration, and afterwards.
Trump certainly hasn’t done himself any favors by taunting the prosecutors investigating him, but being a caustic, polarizing figure isn’t a crime.
Trump is so hated by his political opponents that they’ve determined he must have committed some crime. Now prosecutors like Bragg are hell-bent on finding a way to create a case against him. Democrats wax poetic about the relative strength of the various potential criminal cases Trump faces, but so far it hasn’t been much more than Trump incarceration fantasy.
It’s also a dangerous way to apply justice. Remove Trump from the equation for a moment. We shouldn’t abide by any prosecutor who essentially determines guilt and hunts for an offense. Justice demands that prosecutors apply the law to the facts in as impartial a manner as possible.
If Bragg thinks he has the goods, he should make his case and let the grand jury decide. If jurors return an indictment, then Bragg faces a wealthy defendant with plenty of lawyers. Trump can defend himself quite competently.
Bragg realizes that convicting Trump would instantly make him a Democratic folk hero. Delusions of grandeur are a political drug of choice.
What happens when and if Trump dismantles Bragg’s case and walks? If Democrats think Trump is insufferable now, wait until a jury rejects a politically-motivated prosecution against him.
Democrats have spent years investigating Trump, his family, and his business dealings. They simply can’t dismiss such immense time and effort without anything to show for it.
Cable news is replete with progressive pundits discussing the relative strength of the criminal cases against Trump. There couldn’t be a stranger way of “administering justice” than an open public discussion of which prosecutor and claims need to “go first” to increase the chance that Trump sees the inside of a jail cell. That’s about as political as criminal justice gets.
While the rule of law should apply to Trump every bit as much as the ordinary citizen, so should the presumption of innocence. Countless Americans have already determined that Trump needs to be in prison. The details of the offense have become a mere formality.
Republicans shouldn’t throw stones in a glass house. The GOP suffers from a similar malady when it comes to Hillary Clinton’s email servers or Joe Biden’s connection to Hunter Biden’s business dealings. Guilt is determined in the court of public opinion, and the only remaining issue is finding a prosecutor to make the legal details work out.
We shouldn’t permit such a broken view of justice to go after Trump, Biden, or any American. Prosecutors should make cases that serve the ends of justice without regard to politics. When they make weak cases to advance their political careers, jurors should bounce the charges like a basketball at a trampoline park. Republican justice for some and Democratic justice for others won’t work if we hope to maintain liberty and justice for all.
Smith is a recovering political attorney with four boys, two dogs, a bearded dragon, and an extremely patient wife. He engages media, business, and policy through Triptych Media. Please direct outrage or agreement to csmith@al.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.
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