The Trump Conviction: An Assault on Justice and Democracy

After a trial that made Soviet-era show trials look like appetizers, and after Judge Merchan issued jury instructions that made a conviction a near certainty, the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, was convicted of 34 felonies. Readers can be forgiven for believing that the political weaponization of the criminal justice system is now complete. This conviction has unleashed those suffering from the Trump Derangement Syndrome to join in ecstatic dancing born of unbridled rage – proving that frenzied anger is both addictive and contagious.

At the same time, those of us who are committed to the rule of law should be appalled because our democracy has been subordinated to an authoritarian judicial process, allowing unbridled prosecutors to seek a result rather than justice. This approach allows prosecutors to make up charges to prevent the American people from deciding the outcome of the next presidential election. From the attempt to remove Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado, Maine, and elsewhere based on the spurious claim that he was disqualified by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution to the case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia alleging election interference, there has been a concerted campaign to prevent the democratic process from working on behalf of the American people.

Indeed, there is evidence that ties Trump’s conviction in Manhattan District Attorney Bragg’s case to the Biden White House. Lawyer, Margot Cleveland, argues:

[T]hose seeking to ensure [Biden’s] re-election have their hands all over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of the former president. A lead prosecutor for Bragg during the trial was Matthew Colangelo. In December 2022, Colangelo left the Biden Department of Justice to “jump start” the criminal case against Trump. Biden had previously named Colangelo his acting associate attorney general—the third-highest-ranking official in the DOJ.

This move raises the obvious question:  Why would the third highest-ranking official from Biden’s DOJ leave his job to work for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office? For many Americans, this question answers itself.

Beyond such questions suggesting that legal totalitarianism (lawfare) is lurking in American democracy, it seems likely that Judge Merchan made several reversible errors that may include jury instructions stating that the jurors did not have to unanimously agree that Mr. Trump committed the underlying federal offense, which was the linchpin of the prosecution’s case. Still, the appeal process will inevitably be time-consuming. In the interim, America’s commitment to democracy is wilting as the judge contemplates potential sentences, including imprisonment.

As law professor Jonathan Turley points out, the Trump Trial echoes a darkly disturbing chapter in American history, the trial of James Callender, a muckraking writer who criticized President John Adams. This instance of political persecution was one of many such cases brought by the Adams Administration. Now, of course, the cascading number of anti-Trump show trials and prosecutions suggests that the Left has learned from John Adams. It appears that the American Left is prepared to engage in lawfare and use and abuse the courts to go after their political opponents. This approach to democracy mirrors the approach taken by the Left during the 2016 presidential election campaign, marked by electrifyingly false claims that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russian operatives.

Against this backdrop, it is time for the American people to use every First Amendment, legal, and political avenue available to them and fight back. As commentator Mollie Hemingway notes, show trials such as the one in Manhattan do not harm Donald Trump. Instead, the assault on the rule of law is an existential threat to the country. The people need to realize that “the rule of law is really what has held our republic together.” Writer Rod Dreher notes that ever “[s]ince the 19th century French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville’s grand tour of their country, Americans have learned to pay attention to smart European observers who see the United States with loving but critical eyes.” Now Polish philosopher Zbigniew Janowski has “taken the measure of America.” After living and teaching college in the U.S. for decades, he “warns the people of the United States that they are in urgent danger of succumbing to a softer form of” totalitarianism. Totalitarianism thrives by subverting democratic participation and the rule of law to the rule of Left-wing elites.

The ACLJ has always supported the rule of law. One need not be a supporter or opponent of Donald Trump to recognize just how serious the Left-wing’s lawfare campaign is to our democracy. It is time for Americans who believe in the rule of law to fight back.