Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best.
“When you strike at a King, you must kill him.”
The parentage of the American essayist’s words have been claimed by many, but one thing can’t be denied: if you indict a former president of the United States, you’d better not lose.
And this writer — who worked, full disclosure, for Hillary Clinton in three states in 2016, including at her Brooklyn headquarters — thinks Manhattan’s District Attorney is going to lose. Badly.
As everyone is noting, this has never happened before: a president — or a former president — being indicted for a crime. In the 247 years the American republic has existed, no president had ever been charged with a crime. Ever.
Impeached, yes — Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton, once, and the aforementioned Donald J. Trump, twice. But arraigned, fingerprinted and photographed like a common criminal? That’s a first.
It also won’t succeed. As much as this writer detests Trump, the fact remains: successfully prosecuting a president — any president — is doomed to failure.
Forget about the “no one is above the law” piffle. If O. J. Simpson showed us anything, it’s that celebrities in the United States are judged by a different standard. And Donald Trump isn’t just a celebrity — he’s arguably the biggest celebrity of this era.
I also think he’ll walk. Five reasons.
One, if you read any of the news stories about Trump’s indictment, you will repeatedly see two words: “legal theory.” The “legal theory” relates to whether it was inappropriate to mix Trump Organization funds — and presidential campaign funds — in some Byzantine way to pay off a porn star.
If you are ever going to try out a “legal theory,” best not do it in a courtroom against a media-savvy former president in front of an international audience. Experiment at home first, sure. Not on the front pages of the world’s newspapers.
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Two, the principal source of the allegations against Trump come from one man: his former lawyer, a convicted criminal. Michael D. Cohen was the one who allegedly arranged for the hush money to be paid to porn star Stormy Daniels. Problem: Cohen is a crook, a convicted fraudster and perjurer. He’s been jailed for those crimes. Why would he be believed now? For the prosecution, it’ll be a very big hill to climb.
Three: the other star witness is Stormy Daniels, a porn star. The pneumatic Daniels is no dummy — she shows a rapier wit on social media — but she is also a bit of a loon. Among other things, Daniels bills herself as a “paranormal investigator” — and stars in something called the “Spooky Babes Show.” She has testified previously that her house is haunted by “a non-human thing with tentacles.”
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While those of us who have gone through divorce can empathize with that description, it isn’t going to do much for Stormy’s credibility on the stand. Spooky, indeed.
Four: the Manhattan prosecutor in the case, Alvin J. Bragg, is a registered Democrat. He went to Harvard, he’s a good Dad, he taught Sunday school. It doesn’t matter. The Right Wing Death Machine is about to pluck Bragg from obscurity, and pop him into a gigantic political Cuisinart. Every mistake, every misstep that he has made in his 49 years is about to get the mean proctologist’s treatment, without anesthesia. He is going to become a human piñata, and fodder for every Republican presidential candidate. For months.
Five: and that is the biggest reason why indicting Donald J Trump is a mistake. It will unite all of the GOP presidential aspirants like nothing else. A black, Harvard-educated Democrat prosecuting a Republican former president who still tops most polls? Not good.
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That’s not all. A line has been crossed on Thursday in Manhattan. When the GOP retake the White House — and they will — they will return the favor, with extreme prejudice. They will indict Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton — and the Kennedy brothers, if they can.
The criminal prosecution of Donald Trump will unleash a Civil War in American politics like has never been seen before. It’ll be ugly.
Trump is a crook. Yes. Everyone knows that.
We didn’t need a doomed-to-failure prosecution to remind us.
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