“There must be one law-and one application of law-for all comparable acts and persons. There must also be one standard of civil liberties-and complaints about their violation-by principled civil libertarians…This unacceptable double standard is so widespread that it endangers the rule of law and the historic role of neutral, non-partisan civil liberties that are protected from partisan weaponization.” – Get Trump
In the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election, one of the many public acts of election interference began when 51 former intelligence officials responded to a New York Post exclusive report on the Hunter Biden laptop, branding it as Russian disinformation. It was not. The FBI had authenticated it nearly a year earlier using an Apple iCloud ID. Their purpose: to divert its effects until after the election to help Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Following a string of attacks on President Donald Trump, perverting both the legal and legislative systems, Trump's foes are at it again. First, they tried to overthrow the 2016 election with claims of Russian election interference and peepee tapes. Now, after two spurious impeachment attempts for alleged abuse of power, and insurrection following January 6, their ongoing misuse of the judicial system has resulted in unprecedented legal actions against a former president and leading candidate for the 2024 election.
In New York, a trio of cases brought by a Democrat Attorney General, who ran on the premise of getting Trump, leads the lawfare circus. The first was a case well past the statute of limitations, a civil prosecution of sexual abuse claims by E. Jean Carroll, that supposedly took place in the 1990s, whose exact details even Carroll was unable to recall having accused six other men of the same offense. Next was a bank fraud case for loans from 2011 where the New York AG claims Trump’s net worth was misrepresented, even though the bank sided with Trump, and there were no victims. The result was a large payoff to the Democrats of New York. Most recently was a lawsuit over bookkeeping errors in the Stormy Daniels hush money case, which led unsurprisingly to a criminal conviction over misdemeanor offenses despite its charges also being brought past the statute of limitations for a payment made back in 2016.
In Georgia, Trump is accused of interference in the 2020 election, for merely questioning its outcome. By May 2024, however, the case was in an appeals court over a publicly funded tryst between DA Fani Willis and her leading prosecutor lover, Nathan Wade. Paying Wade above and beyond other prosecutors, despite his lack of expertise in RICO cases, for which Trump and others were accused, allowed the lovebirds to vacation on Wade's inflated income, compromising the integrity of the case.
Two federal cases joined the lawfare spectacle, first in Florida, where Trump battles a classified documents case that saw his home, Mar-a-Lago, raided by the FBI in August 2022. Evidence photos leaked to the public have since been found to be doctored. Classified document cases against Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were dropped, despite evidence of hacking in both cases, with Hillary destroying documents while Biden shared his with his ghostwriter. In DC, a federal indictment from Jack Smith, a Special Prosecutor, perhaps appointed unconstitutionally by AG Merrick Garland, charges Trump with insurrection for the January 6, 2021 riot, despite Trump’s speech calling for calm and peaceful protests.
This unrelated collection of cases originated as far back as the mid-1990s and yet coincidentally all went to trial in the months leading up to the 2024 Presidential election, with most relying on novel theories of the law to twist statutes in an attempt to convict Trump of something. Recent rulings by SCOTUS may affect the constitutionality of most if not all of these cases.
Even more lawfare was revealed in the jailing of Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon for contempt of Congress, while Eric Holder, Lois Lerner, Hunter Biden, and Merrick Garland remain free for the same charge. Most recently, more than a dozen states attempted to remove Trump from the primary ballots in 2024, citing the Disqualification Clause of the 14th Amendment as its reason. Unfortunately for them, a 9-0 ruling from SCOTUS spoiled their plans. Now, Guiliani has been disbarred for his defense of Trump in his election interference claims, a similar fate brought against lawyers defending individuals during the age of McCarthyism, a 1940s witch hunt against citizens with Communist views. Today, the fear campaign against Trump associates includes Project 65, an effort to hold attorneys responsible for representing people who threaten democracy, focused exclusively on those who questioned the 2020 election results, a not-so-veiled attempt to circumvent legal representation for Trump, his associates, and his backers.
In Alan Dershowitz’s 2023 book, “Get Trump”, civil liberties lawyer, Dershowitz, laments the unconstitutional precedent occurring in the name of stopping Trump from winning the upcoming 2024 presidential election, including violations in the rule of law, right to counsel, and free speech. Since Trump is an exception to the Constitution, Democrats argue that a double standard to the law is required. Once Trump is removed, the Constitutional standards of law will presumably return. To Dershowitz, these attacks on civil liberties are worse than the threat of Trump being reelected. Arguing that one standard of the law should apply to all, Dershowitz notes that a bipartisan consensus should always be required. Lawfare against Trump has threatened several Amendments to the Constitution including the First Amendment for free speech, the Fourth Amendment standards of search and seizures, the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination, and the Sixth Amendment right to confront evidence brought against a citizen in America.
While Trump has been in the public eye for most of his life, as a famed real estate tycoon, and then an entertainer, it was only after he entered politics on the wrong side of the establishment, that his fortune changed, resulting in a debilitating condition, known as Trump Derangement Syndrome, a hatred so severe that it impairs normal judgment.
With our legal system based on equality under the law, weaponizing the justice system against one party will certainly end with similar lawfare toward the other. Lawfare may seem like a short-term solution to an extreme reaction to losing an upcoming election, but it brings a dangerous precedent. Not only has it damaged democratic institutions, but it has also brought deep skepticism to the court of public opinion. We must never allow our justice system to be misappropriated again. Since the rule of law requires that all are treated equally, careful attention must be paid to applying one standard regardless of political affiliation. If the people don’t believe that justice is fair, you will have no law and order.
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