RIP: Justice
As much as it pains Andrew McCarthy to say, “the country we love has become unlovely,” he does say it. That, and a lot more about the point of no return.
What Happened?
McCarthy sees the same “anguish” on the faces of legal cohorts who grew up, as he did, in the justice system. Some of these friends couldn’t care less about Donald Trump, wouldn’t vote for him, consider the cynical circus that just closed in lower Manhattan as confirmation of Trump’s appalling behavior. These friends memorialize “what American law was at its imperfect best.”
(Friends), who verge on weeping openly over what’s happened to (American law).
(Friends) who won’t vote for (Trump), who look at the cynical circus that just closed down in lower Manhattan as still more confirmation of his appalling judgment and character . . .
A Clown Show vs a Feisty Splendor
Our system embodied the rule of law, the sturdy undercarriage of a free, prosperous, pluralistic society. Now, on its good days, it’s a clown show. On the bad days — there are far too many of those — it’s a political weapon.
If you enact laws that reflect civic virtue, and you enforce them without fear or favor, and if you work really hard at it because it’s no easy thing, you can have liberty in all its feisty splendor.
A Constitutional Republic Pivoting to a Banana Republic
But as the rule of law degrades into the rule of partisan lawyers, a constitutional republic inexorably decays into a banana republic. And it won’t take long.
Bragg’s Morality Play
This isn’t about Donald Trump. It’s not about him. Mr. Trump concurs, “They aren’t after me, they’re after you.” Don’t mistake Trump for the phenomenon. He’s just the floor model, argues Mr. McCarthy.
It is not about a person’s suitability for a public office of high trust. If it were, it would be worth recounting in chapter and verse how the facts of People v. Trump attest to Donald Trump’s unfitness for the presidency — the extramarital flings, the lying, the intimate association with rogues like Michael Cohen and David Pecker, the bookkeeping practices that were as mind-bogglingly dumb as they were intentionally misleading.
Yes, technically speaking, nondisclosure agreements with porn stars are not campaign expenditures the non-reporting of which is a cognizable federal felony; but that doesn’t make one’s unfair prosecution over them worthy of comparison to the travails of Mother Teresa.
And yes, Trump’s record-keeping may be on the right side of the fraud line, barely; that doesn’t make it any more “perfect” than the “perfect” phone call with Zelensky, the “perfect” speech on the Ellipse, and the “perfect” retention of highly classified intelligence at a resort club.
Prosecution of Trump Shocks the Conscience
The self-defeating defense strategy that unfolded over the past six weeks doesn’t come close to rationalizing the shambles that progressive Democrats have made of our justice system in their rabid jihad against Trump, continues Mr. McCarthy.
(Alvin) Bragg is a Democrat who campaigned for office on the implied promise that he’d reprise his practice, as a top deputy in the state attorney general’s office, of using the legal process to hound Trump. For that, New Yorkers elected him — just as they’ve twice elected Letitia James based on her now-fulfilled vow to exploit state power against the Democrats’ archnemesis. The decay here is not just legal; it’s cultural.
Bragg indicted based on a business-records statute that, as applied in this case, is unconstitutionally vague under New York’s constitution. He resorted to this penal provision because he was bereft of what any prosecutor even thinking about indicting a former president and de facto presidential nominee should have: a serious crime that would be charged against anyone, supported by clear, convincing evidence. Ergo, Bragg had to rely on caprice — which is page one in the selective-prosecution playbook.
Due Process Cedes to Punitive Process
I encourage you to make the effort to read in its entirety Andrew McCarthy’s legal analysis here:
Scrutinize What Just Happened
McCarthy maintains that what happened in Manhattan was monstrous. He advises all to look at it long and hard.
The fallout is the antithesis of a constitutional republic that presumes innocence, imposes the burden of proof on the state, venerates its due-process rules, and guarantees equal protection of law. The antithesis is now the norm.
Regardless of what happens to Donald Trump, all of us will live to regret it.
