But Trump!

In a quest to get one man they hate, the Democrats and their allies are willing to feed the US justice system to the shredder.

Imagine this conversation between Alvin Bragg, Manhattan DA, Fani Willis, Fulton County DA, Jack Smith, Special Counsel appointed by the risible US Attorney General Merrick Garland, Letitia James, New York Attorney General, Bennie Thompson and Liz Cheney of the J6 Committee and Adam Schiff who was the Chair of the House Intel Committee:

“I must find something – I was elected to get him,” says Letitia James.

Jack Smith says, “That’s why I was appointed, too.”

“But none of these laws really apply…” says Liz Cheney.

“Yeah, what do we do now? I’ve already missed him twice,” adds Adam Schiff.

“But Trump,” says Liz Cheney.

“Great,” says Bennie Thompson, “Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?”

“I’m pretty sure that is in the Federal Code,” says Alvin Bragg. “If it isn’t yet, it should be.”

I’m not a lawyer. The closest I came to being one was passing the LSAT and being accepted at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

There is something I do know, though.

No matter what Alvin Bragg in Manhattan thinks, “But Trump!” isn’t a codicil to any legal code.

Bragg has taken two separate statutes and superglued them together to squeeze a misdemeanor charge together and is counting on the Trump hating jury pool to give him enough confidence to go for a felony. Willis in Atlanta must find a way to change the meaning of “find” into “invent” in the mind of a judge and jury – as in when trump encouraged the Georgia folks to “find” any legitimate votes, Willis must get a jury to believe when he said “find”, Trump meant to manufacture illegitimate votes.

I can believe a jury anywhere in New York City, DC or Atlanta could be convinced to set aside the fact that Trump is uniquely deserving of a DA using any means necessary to manufacture a crime. Orange Man Bad, you know.

But that is what is happening.

I have been involved in and personally witnessed discussions – some of them among lawyers – in which people say things like, and I quote from the discussions:

“As for Trump, he’s far from the worst that America has produced, but is among the top handful, and he’s certainly going to be the only one criminally charged, convicted and imprisoned” and “the ‘orange man bad’- reflex from Trump worshipers is going to look somewhat dated when he’s criminally indicted, prosecuted, tried and convicted.”

Another lawyer in the email discussion has been asking for a week now:

“Still waiting for you to cite the law he broke. You KNOW he broke the law, right? Can you even reference a statute or just your feelings?”

None of them can name a single law that applies.

Many of these folks are hanging their hat on their new hero, Jack Smith, the guy who was successful in getting a conviction against former Gov. Bob McDonnell (R-VA), which was later unanimously overturned 9-0 by the Supreme Court because Smith basically rewrote the statute to suit his case. The judge and jury bought it, SCOTUS didn’t.

Letitia James, the New York Attorney General, was elected on a platform that was nothing less than “I’m going to get Trump – someway, somehow.”

Not to mention, two failed impeachments, a two-year investigation that found that it was Hillary colluding with the Russians, not Trump, all while he was in office.

All these people - plus the Democrats and NeverTrumpers in DC - are willing to set aside any semblance of respect for the law to get Trump and they will even support the application and/or expansion of laws and regulations they have ardently fought against for decades - all for one purpose – to prevent Donald J. Trump from ever spending another day in the Oval Office.

There are also those in the social media domain who use “But Trump!” as evidence that any train wreck, bank failure or literally anything they don’t like can be blamed on Trump.

“But Trump!” is also not an affirmative defense for the misuse of the law.

Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin’s Merrick Garland, said “Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime” – but this idea is the anthesis of the way our justice system should work. Nobody should be above the law, but none should be under it either.

But none of this is about the law, this is about using the law for political ends.

It is hard to imagine anyone but Trump being pursued for any of this, but they just KNOW he is guilty of something and he MUST be stopped. They know it so much so; they feel it in their bones. They just need to find the crime. They literally ache to find it. Threat to democracy and all, you know.

Trump may or may not have violated something, but that’s not even the point. The “But Trump!” crowd, somewhat unsurprisingly, looks at this the way they do the conflict in Ukraine. If you want someone to articulate why American taxpayers are paying for Ukrainian pensions, you are a Putin stooge. If you want Trump to be treated fairly, you are a Trump sycophant, a “but Mussolini made the trains run on time” level apologist.

I know. I was just called that after saying I agreed with Trump’s policies even though I didn’t like everything he said.

Oscar R. Benavides, President (and dictator) of Peru from 1933 to 1939 famously said, “For my friends, everything; for my enemies, the law.”

The “But Trump!” factions of the Democrat and Republican Parties have gone full Benavides.

Never go full Benavides.