Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and President Joe Biden both campaigned – quite successfully – on defeating The Donald. Now that the former president has become the first in US history to face felony charges, however, they have something else in common: Whether this Trump case fails or not, the “historic first” could become a horrific curse for the both of them.
The Ironclad Trump Case – Or Bragg’s Delusion?
DA Bragg’s Trump case is solid – in his own mind, at least. But is that a fair representation of the facts, or a delusion brought on by severe Trump Derangement Syndrome? As Liberty Nation Legal Affairs Editor Scott D. Cosenza, Esq. explained, “Each of the 34 counts in the indictment says the charge includes ‘intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof.’ Bragg’s indictment does not list what other crime or crimes Mr. Trump aided by his alleged falsification of business records.” According to speculation and reported leaks, Cosenza continued, it seems likely Bragg will try to present alleged hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels as violations of election law.
Regardless of the legal merits of the case, however, an outside observer might expect one’s confidence in an eventual conviction to closely follow party lines. Not so. Most conservatives – including some who are normally anti-Trump, it seems – do, in fact, see the indictment as a political attack that won’t work out the way DA Bragg seems to think. What’s shocking – and quite telling – is that many on the left agree.
Leftist outlet Slate presents Bragg’s determination to make this a felony case as “most obviously, to ensure that his prosecution does not look like a petty, partisan effort to give Trump a mere slap on the wrist.”
“But what election law, exactly, did this plot run afoul of?” Slate later asks. “The entire prosecution hinges on that question – and yet neither the indictment nor the statement of facts identifies it.” Bragg’s answer to that question thus far led even this anti-Trump outlet to call the DA’s theory “somewhat shaky.” Bragg faces an uphill battle, the outlet concludes, and his legal theory is, “if not convoluted, a fairly confusing effort to patch together disparate offenses into one alleged crime, carried out over 34 illegal payments. This is not at all the slam-dunk case that so many Democrats wanted.”
(Photo by Timothy A. Clary-Pool/Getty Images)
Trump isn’t due back in court until December, so Bragg certainly has some time to make a case if he hasn’t already. However, should this Trump case fall apart, will it leave behind a stain that taints any further attempt – regardless of the reason? How credible will any prosecution against Trump look after DA Bragg’s apparently political attack? The Manhattan district attorney may have hoped to build his career around this case, but he might just sink it, instead.
Strengthening The Donald – At Biden’s Expense?
Bragg isn’t the only rabidly anti-Trump Democrat who has a lot more to worry about now than before the indictment. As LN Managing Editor Mark Angelides wrote after news broke of the grand jury decision, “There is little as powerful as a cause to unite disparate factions.” Trump’s VP, Mike Pence, denounced the charges as an outrage. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called it un-American, and said that “[t]he weaponization of the legal system to advance a political agenda turns the rule of law on its head.” Both are potential presidential contenders themselves, but it appears the party is unifying once more behind Trump, even if only in spite of Bragg’s prosecution. Even Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) – a man known to passionately dislike the former president – spoke out against the charges, saying he believes the New York prosecutor has “stretched to reach felony criminal charges in order to fit a political agenda.”
Before the indictment, polling showed that the vast majority of both Republican (93%) and independent (70%) voters saw it as a purely political move, but what’s most shocking is that 30% of Democrats polled agreed.
Fox News talked to a handful of New York voters after Trump’s arraignment, and what they had to say bode ill not only for Bragg, but potentially for Biden and other Democrats as well. “My whole thing is they found the worse prosecutor in America to prosecute Trump because Alvin Bragg would not prosecute a Black on Black crime or Latino-Latino crime … He’ll send those guys free. In the meantime, he goes after a former president,” Democrat voter and former police officer Sammy Ravelo said. “This is a tragedy for America right now. We should not be celebrating.”
“Alvin Bragg has spent his entire career keeping criminals out of jail, so it’s impossible for me to believe that this is not politically driven,” said Dominick Ciccarelli, an independent voter. “The American people care about hush money with Stormy Daniels just as much as they care about Bill Clinton and Paula Jones’ sexual harassment settlement cases.”
“What the American people care about is presidents becoming richer during their presidencies and becoming presidents, and maybe political figures, to line their own pockets,” he continued.
Marissa Caro-Cortese, another Democrat, said she’s no fan of Trump’s, but that she expected more. “Enough is enough already,” she said. “If we’re going to start pinpointing politicians for all of their business affairs, looking deeper into things that they’ve done in the past, we need to investigate all of them. He’s not the first person who’s done this.”
President Biden – and, indeed, Democrats everywhere – should be worried about 2024 more now than ever. Whatever else may result from Bragg’s Trump case, that the GOP is motivated and many Democrat voters are disgusted seems certain. When asked by the host how many thought that Trump would definitely win the Republican primary, were it held that very day, every hand in Fox’s panel of guests went up. All but two figured Trump would then go on to win the general.
An Uncanny Propensity for Dangerous Precedents
Caro-Cortese’s point, along with Ciccarelli’s, might hint at something far more disastrous for the current president, however, and he has no one to blame but himself and his own comrades on the left. They have an uncanny propensity for setting dangerous precedents, seemingly with no thought whatsoever to how they could come back and bite them later.
In 2013, Democrat Senator Harry Reid led the US Senate in killing the filibuster for confirmation votes on most presidential nominations. No matter how much the left cried foul when Mitch McConnell (R-KY) followed suit for Trump’s Supreme Court appointees, it was Reid’s extreme action that started us down that road.
All throughout Trump’s presidency, he faced congressional investigation for some perceived crime or another. Democrats impeached Trump not once, but twice, though they failed to get a conviction in the Senate – and the first attempt was for alleged acts that occurred before Trump was elected. He faced the constant threat of removal via the 25th Amendment. Today, Biden faces the same light, if not heat, in the GOP-led House.
More importantly – and more concerning for Biden than whether Trump or any other Republican can take the White House in 2024 – are red-state prosecutors already sharpening pencils as they think of what felony charges could be levied against the president just as soon as he’s out of office? Trump was dragged through several years of multi-level investigations and came out more or less clean (this current case not withstanding). Would Biden, with his and his family’s dealings in China and Ukraine, fare as well?
