Below is my column in The Hill on the collapse of the lawfare campaigns against Trump. The first to go will likely be the two cases by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who became a lame-duck prosecutor at around 2:30 am last Wednesday. We are also waiting for what is likely to be a reduction or even a rejection of the Trump civil case by Attorney General Letitia James. While Democratic prosecutors are likely to continue, if not ramp up, their lawfare efforts, Trump will enter office with a fraction of the existing legal threats that have dogged him for years. For prosecutors, they are left like the ancient mariner:
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Here is the column:
Nearly two years ago, I wrote that Democratic prosecutors’ lawfare campaign against Donald Trump would make the 2024 election the single largest jury decision in history. Now that the verdict is in, the question is whether prosecutors will continue their unrelenting campaign against the president-elect and his companies.
The answer is that it may not matter.
The election reflected a certain gag sensation for a public fed a relentless diet of panic and identity politics for eight years. The 2024 election will come to be viewed as one of the biggest political and cultural shifts in our history. It was the mainstream-media-versus-new media election; the Rogan-versus-Oprah election; the establishment-versus-a-disassociated-electorate election.
It was also a thorough rejection of lawfare. One of the things most frustrating for Trump’s opponents was that every trial or hearing seemed to give Trump a boost in the polls. As cases piled up in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia, the effort seemed to move more toward political acclamation than isolation.
These cases are now legal versions of the Flying Dutchman — ships destined to sail endlessly but never make port.
If there is a single captain of that hapless crew, it is Special Counsel Jack Smith. For more than a year, Smith sought to secure a verdict in one of his two cases in Washington and Florida before the election. His urgency was seemingly shared by Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, but by few other judges or justices.
Around 2 am, Smith became a lame-duck prosecutor. Trump ran on ending his prosecutions and can cite a political mandate for it. Certainly, had he lost, the other side would be claiming a mandate for these prosecutions.
Trump’s new attorney general could remove Smith and order the termination of his continued prosecution. That is less of a problem in Florida, where a federal judge had already tossed out the prosecution of the classified documents case, which some of us saw as the greatest threat against Trump.
In Washington, Chutkan, who proved both motivated and active in pushing forward the election interference case, could complicate matters. Under federal rules, it is up to Chutkan to order any dismissal.
In the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan resisted granting the dismissal sought by the Justice Department — a record that I criticized as both unusual and unwarranted.
Chutkan could run the incoming Trump administration around on any dismissal, but in the end, it should succeed in ending Smith’s ill-considered indictment. In reality, Smith was not only losing the Florida case but was likely to be reversed again in Washington due to his refusal to make sufficient changes in his indictment of Trump after the recent immunity decision by the Supreme Court.
Smith could make one last push to damage Trump in the period before the inauguration by pushing for an immunity decision from Chutkan. He would again likely find a supportive ally in Chutkan.
However, in the end, this would do little to change the fact that the Flying Dutchman will soon be without a crew or port of call.
One of the most immediate cases to resume is the prosecution in Manhattan by District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Many, including commentators like CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig, have denounced that case as legally flawed and obviously politically motivated.
Judge Juan Merchan is scheduled to rule on the immunity issue by Nov. 11 and to hold a possible sentencing on Nov. 26. Merchan has shown a pronounced bias against Trump in the past, and his counsel is likely anticipating a continuation of this pattern.
Merchan could sentence Trump to jail. However, such an abusive sentencing, even a brief one, would likely trigger an expedited appeal and would likely be stayed. Trump cannot pardon himself in a state case, but the case itself is a target-rich environment of arguable legal errors that could collapse on appeal.
Another case in New York is likely to move forward now. There is a pending appeal on the massive civil case against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. For many, James is the very face of lawfare as a prosecutor who ran on getting Trump on something, anything.
She ultimately secured another openly biased judge in Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed an absurd, grotesque $455 million in fines and interest against Trump and his corporation. Notably, some of the judges on the appellate panel seemed to agree with that assessment, questioning not just the amount but the very use of this law in a case where there was no victim and no one lost a single dollar due to the fraud alleged.
My assumption is that the opinion is already written, held back only because of the election. It could now be issued and constitute a major change in the case. Whatever is left of that judgment, if anything, would then certainly be appealed.
Then there is the roaring dumpster fire in Georgia. An appellate court there will decide whether District Attorney Fani Willis and her office can continue prosecuting the case. If they are forced off the case, a new prosecutor must review the matter. While some criminal allegations against defendants can be established, the alleged racketeering conspiracy against Trump is legally flawed and likely to fail on appeal.
Trump will also continue to appeal civil cases such as the E. Jean Carroll case, which will linger long past the election.
Trump will not be the only defendant to see substantial changes on January 20, 2025. Trump has pledged to pardon those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The public elected him despite that pledge and over the opposition of Democrats. That will affect hundreds and may come in the form of a mix of pardons and commutations, depending on the underlying charges.
One lingering question will be whether those who supported this lawfare will be deterred in the future. The thrill-kill politics practiced by figures like James proved costly in this election. Polls showed that many citizens have lost trust in the FBI and now view the criminal law process as being politicized in places like New York.
The next few weeks will determine whether Democratic leaders are ready for a new course in ending the lawfare.
President Biden could pardon Trump. It would be a poison-pill pardon. Trump does not need a pardon as the incoming president, but Biden could take the matter off the table by treating him as presumptively guilty. He could not only claim to have taken the higher ground (even though he ran on and promoted the prosecutions of Trump as legitimate) but use it as cover for pardoning his own son.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) could also move to pardon Trump on the New York charges. Hochul was widely criticized for calling Trump supporters (now the majority of voters in the nation) “un-American.” She could seek to make amends with a pardon.
In the end, Trump read the jury correctly. Once the lawfare was unleashed, he focused on putting his case to the public and walked away with a clear majority decision. It is unlikely that this will end all of his lawfare battles, but it may effectively end the war.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster, 2024).
If Biden does not pardon himself on the way out the door, Trump’s DOJ absolutely MUST indict him for mishandling classified documents. Biden must be made to deplete his resources defending himself against the indefensible. He must suffer the indignity of a public trial. Even if they seat another corrupt jury willing to engage in jury nullification and declare Biden not guilty, he must go through the process. Those are the rules Biden’s DOJ established.
If the New York legislators had an ounce of integrity between them, they’d impeach Judge Engoron for abusing his position. He used the color of law to try to effectively steal half a BILLION dollars from Trump. For a “fraud” case where not only did nobody lose a penny, but the alleged “victims” were highly sophisticated Wall Street financiers who themselves claimed they were not victims. Engoron is a bigger disgrace to the judiciary than Judge Taney who wrote the infamous Dred Scott opinion.
But hoping the corrupt New York legislature will do the right thing is beyond laughable. They’re the ones who changed the law so Carrol’s equally laughable stale case was no longer estopped by the statute of limitations. Pure lawfare.
* Trump has no time to waste on Ratropolis. He has 27 repub governors to move forward.
I would think at this juncture the argument could be easily made that Joe Biden is so cognitively impaired that he would be unable to logically comprehend pardoning anyone. Biden family needs to be held accountable for their crimes. The left may howl and say Trump ripped off investors…if that wete true, it’s typical business practice in the open free market. What Biden did, if true was ripping off every American taxpayer and selling out our Nation to the highest bidders.
The Governor and AG of New York should realize that 45% of their voters sided with Trump and the Governors race previously was close. They, like Gov Pritzker in Illinois should also realize that they have a shrinking state as the Well to Do, Investors, Businesses and others are fleeing their states. Pretty soon they may be heavily populated by Illegals with small numbers working or having skills while higher salaries and tax revenue flee to other havens. There will be likely increasing demand for services with shrinking revenue to rely on. I think death spiral is the name. It can happen to cities and states. And a Federal Government that bends a deaf ear to their entreaties.
* Gee, you’ve had your coffee and toast this A.M.
Don’t you just love how JT tells us about the promises of possible trump appointees…
In a November 6 post on X, formerly Twitter, Davis wrote, “Here’s my current mood: I want to drag their dead political bodies through the streets, burn them, and throw them off the wall. (Legally, politically, and financially, of course.).”
“(Legally, politically, and financially, of course.)”
The only problem I have with that is that it might not be the optimum use of precious time and resources for an incoming administration that has been saddled with so many urgent issues by the incompetent traitor buffoons who proceeded it. So far as justice is concerned, that is just find and dandy by me.
Dear Mr. Turley, It is no surprise that the “spoiled brats” of the Democratic party still plan on attacking Mr. Trump at every juncture. They can’t stand that he won in a landslide, no less, even after all of their lecturing on how he was worse than Hitler. They need to be reminded that Mr. Trump did not have Hillary Clinton arrested on his watch. He could have done this with her election interference and her careless handling of our state secrets. I, for one, voted for Mr. Trump and am thankful he won and am surprised he won in such a landslide. Congratulations to Mr. Trump, Mr. Vance and their team.
“They can’t stand that he won in a landslide”
How about a reality check.
On Jan 6, 2021, after trump lost, over 1,000 trump supporters attacked the Capitol building and threatened to hang Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. How many “Democratic” riots have there been so far? What do you think the odds are of a Democratic mob attacking the Capitol on in Jan 2025 demanding Kamala be made President?
Get a grip. One side of this political divide has threatened violence at every step. trump supporters, not Democrats.
Seattle. Democrat brown shirts, antifa, rioted against Seattle PD on the eve of the election.
Anonymous from the Darkside.. please wake up! Your ‘Reality Check’ including the INSIDE INSTIGATORS ‘(NOT DT Supporters), staged, fake ‘HANGING’ & encouraged RIOTS (Thank you, Ray Epps et al….) were meant to DECEIVE you and all who accept without questioning what the MSM has to say……. God Bless America for what she really is.. as shown on Election Day this year…. The prayers that started at Valley Forge, PA.. came thru Butler, PA.. the Election of Donald Trump is an answer to prayer… to stop those forces trying to hurt YOU and the USA…….
The reality check will come to light decades from now, After all the facts have been safely sorted and stored such that an investigative historian writes the definitive work on the January 6 matter. By that time all the principals and their witnesses will have gone to dust and only the reader remaining to say ‘Oh my!’
Libturds like you rioted after Trumps first election
Were you asleep?
Get a grip. One side of this political divide has threatened violence at every step. trump supporters, not Democrats.
Grip? Soviet Democrat street thugs were rioting, pillaging, looting and burning in Ferguson while Obama and Biden, not Trump, were sitting in the White House saying nothing but “America is systemically racist and police hunt young black men to murder”.
You whining losers hope America has forgotten the Ferguson riots and how they spread, long before Trump was president? How Obama and Biden did nothing to stop their brainwashed minions burning communities down and attempting to murder police?
Started by Black Liars & Marxists claiming Michael Brown was murdered by police while on his knees up with his arms raised in surrender, begging for his life saying “Please don’t shoot”?
Still got your Michael Brown rioters’ commemorative T-shirt?
You hope Americans have forgotten the Black Liars & Marxists mass murderer who murdered five Dallas police officers from ambush? Murdered while they were there to provide security to a Black Liars & Marxists protest march? The murderer who later died in a shootout with responding police, screaming that he wanted to kill all white people?
How about a reality check. On Jan 6, 2021, after trump lost, over 1,000 trump supporters attacked the Capitol building and threatened to hang Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.
This reality check of yours concern the assault on the White House with Trump and his family inside that happened a few weeks before January 6th? An assault that lasted over 24 hours, and not a red MAGA hat in sight – and the preferred style of dress was stylish black masks to conceal faces and all black clothing and “Black Lives Matter” signs along with communist flags?
50 Secret Service agents wounded in White House riots as Donald Trump is taken to ‘terror attack’ bunker
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11752998/trump-secure-bunker-friday-george-floyd-protests-white-house/
Would you like to offer your opinions on that day long assault on that White House, as the Soviet Democrat street thugs in Antifa and Black Liars & Marxists attempted to gain access to the White House to butcher President Trump and his family?
While Cackling Kamala encouraged them by telling America and those street thugs “They should not stop, nor should they”. And The Big Guy praised them for their attack as “a courageous group of Americans”.
You think continually presenting your version of history from inside your commie bubble is going to change the verdict Americans just delivered on your BS on election night?
Maybe it’s time to have a real licensing board in all states for attorneys rather than a Bar Association. A licensing board that actually passes judgment and punishment on miscreant attorneys, demands remediation, demanded coursework and monitored practice patterns for a significant period of time after adverse decisions are made by the Board.
Texas has had one of the most active medical boards in the country and tracks down physicians with bad records with almost breathtaking persistence.
I think legal boards should be empowered in all states to attain this same policing power and then subject all legal professionals to court actions if the Board finds them wanting.
Their needs to be ethics with teeth, and there needs to be Boards appointed by governors with stipulations that their be Dems, Reps, Independents , Lay people on the Board. No attorney should be charged before a Bar and lose his license because he represented an unpopular politician.
“Maybe it’s time to have a real licensing board in all states for attorneys rather than a Bar Association.”
Meh. I fear that licensing boards would be too prone to make political decisions on licensees. Frankly, I think there could be merit in going the other direction. Allow any defendant or litigant to choose any other citizen to represent him in a court of law? Was that not the case at the inception of this nation? Your private or public sector board would be free to publish ratings of professional lawyers for differing specialties to allow litigants to make better selections.
GEB
Your ignorance of the facts is breathtaking.
Every state has a licensing board for attorneys. For whatever historical reason they are known as State Bar Associations. They perform EXACTLY the same functions as State Medical Boards.
They issue licenses.
They hear complaints about attorneys.
They discipline attorneys with fines, letters of reprimand, remedial education or license suspension just like Medical Boards.
They can revoke an attorney’s license, just like a Medical Board.
“Every state has a licensing board for attorneys. For whatever historical reason they are known as State Bar Associations.”
Wrong, 1d10t d1psh1t ly1ng pr3t3nd3r BS artist. 31 states and DC have what are known as mandatory bar associations to which the state government has delegated licensing administration. 19 states then, do not.
The End of Mandatory State Bars?
https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2020/04/Levin_The-End-of-Mandatory-State-Bars.pdf
And while medical boards that have delegated authority seem to exist in every state, there is quite a bit of variation in regard to those organizations and the authorities exercised:
State Medical Boards Explained: Composition, Role, Responsibilities
xttps://medicallicensing.com/medical-boards/role-of-state-medical-boards/ (substitute “h” for initial “x” to recreate link)
Why don’t you take a long hike off a short pier, and see if the fishies are amused by your eternal made-up cow flop?
Anonymous 10.07AM I Know what Bar Associations do and that they have delegated powers and I do not like them because they are insufficient and often biased. Licensing and maintenance of a license and adequate supervision of an attorney should be a state function with set powers and with a board appointed by the governor (with representation of both parties and the lay public)
I do not live in a vacuum. Lifelong work with attorneys, judges, DA’s, even an Attorney General. Many as patients as well as co-professionals and their leashes, to my mind, are longer and less tight than what physicians deal with.
Medical licensing boards used to be similar but they are far tighter and more stringent than they once were with automatic communication with other state boards about bad actors (which for years never happened) since some physicians skated from state to state before the authorities could catch them. Less of a problem now but not perfect.
As far as I can tell, the system for disciplining attorneys works just fine.
Just look at the great multitude of Trump’s lawyers who have been disciplined or disbarred.
In the past couple days it’s clear the usual suspects have learned nothing from the results of the election. Listening to them assess why their candidate lost makes you think they have broken minds. Those airing their feelings on social media are cutting their hair off and demanding they divorce their spouse. It seems hatred and envy are the air they breathe. In California there’s talk of “Trump Proofing” the state. I’ll bet not long after the president is sworn in once again the word Impeachment will fill the MSM. At this point there will be a Lawfare 2.0.
” It seems hatred and envy are the air they breathe.”
The utter viciousness and hypocrisy of the left is utterly astounding. After all of the histrionics about how illegal immigrants are victims that we need to accommodate financially and socially, leftists are pillorying Hispanics who voted for Trump; there are even some on social media who are attempting to organize efforts to deport any who voted that way. You couldn’t make this stuff up.
Hispanic Voters Hit With Racist Attacks After Massive Shift To Trump
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/hispanic-voters-hit-racist-attacks-after-massive-shift-trump
That kind of vitriol and hate is a sure way to get the folks that you are demonizing to vote the way you suggest in forthcoming elections, right ;?>
Sharktank’s Kevin O’Leary spoke of the election as a self correcting remedy for entrepreneurship, among other things. That dovetails into what Jonathon has been saying all along about the durability of our constitutional blueprint. It works. It’s possible that lawfare as a conservative perjorative could swallow the use of racism as it is contumaciously thrown by the left at any argument on the merits.
Bragg and James are elected officials who understand how the game is played. Trump’s campaigning in NY, especially in the Bronx and Manhattan was, in part, an example of how he can gin up support even in the most hostile anti-Republican areas of the country. He missed winning NY by about 10 percent, a big number but a lot smaller than expected and that he previously missed by. The message was clear to Bragg and James: Continue with this nonsense and I’ll see to it that you never eat lunch in NY again! Each of these evil people has and will have competition when they run for office again and a President disposed to helping that opposition could be formidable foe. There’s no interest like self-interest and I expect both will diplomatically bow out, claiming all sorts of craziness to pacify their backers who, like them, will be very disappointed to see the dreaded orange man walk.
Before we tune up to sing kumbaya, there must be a deluge of prosecutions of democrats relying on the precedents they established. Prison time for rioters and deniers, and also Comey, Brennan, Panetta, Mueller, HRC, all of them. Biden, the most criminally-exposed President in the history of the Union, must be haled before a carefully-shopped court in a Republican jurisdiction and imprisoned, bad memory elderly and all. The traitors don’t get to just close up shop and go home and collect their pensions. America deserves a reckoning, and Trump deserves the opportunity to pardon them at the end of his term — or not.
Prof. Turley… another masterly written chapter on the Election impact… despite a lot of the bleeding being stopped, Pres. Trump must move to empower his AG and Legislators to come up with serious Laws/Legal Structure that will prevent most of this undeserved nonsense/legal political warfare in the future…and.. Yes.. You need to serve as an official Advisor! We are all still so irritated & upset about all of this, even with the Election Victory, because we know it can happen again.. and again.. later.. when unevolved people somehow get into positions of authority.. in the last place they belong, our Judicial System.. and are ‘paid’ to do such utterly insane ‘grotesque’ damage as we have seen, well summarized by you…. And.. HOW did we get into a position where the DOJ is de facto ‘above the law?’ ‘the incredible shrinking’ (Thank you for that) Garland can skate free of arrest for ‘Contempt of Congress..’ the purple sashed Smith can be illegally appointed.. both of these chaps loved to lecture us that ‘no one is above the law..’ and so on.. and so forth…….
Everyone of these fascist democrats deserves jail time!
Nothing will change the fact that Pres.-elect Trump acted imprudently his last month in office, and fought to keep Top Secret documents at his house in Florida. No need to excuse the behavior. However, the DOJ acted disproportionately, and defied the Special Counsel appointment law in selecting Smith. That misconduct also must not be excused. Errors must be acknowledged. Leaders must know they have to live under the laws of the country, and are accountable to the People for doing so.
Since, Garland and Smith will soon be unemployed, and Pres. Trump will be shouldering enormous responsibilities on our behalf, the greater good will be served by dropping the Smith prosecutions.
But, let’s be clear about the mistakes that were made by both Trump and Garland, so that our leaders know they cannot game the law for political advantage.
……..and vice versa. Hubris ridden sots like James take note.
Now do Biden. Please to specifically address the Top Secret docs he had for years and that were taken by Biden when he had no authority to possess them in the first place. To remind, there are the docs that Rober Hur investigated and – but for his conclusion that Biden was so incompetent as to threaten a prosecution – expressly found he had consciously taken and kept. The Left savaged Hur for this. And perhaps it’s beside the point to observe here that it wasn’t two months before the Left ran Biden off b/c….he was non compos mentis. Yes, please to distinguish the Trump docs he had for 8 months and the Biden docs he had for 20 years.
Nothing will change the fact that Pres.-elect Trump acted imprudently his last month in office, and fought to keep Top Secret documents at his house in Florida. No need to excuse the behavior.
This is missing context from the existing 2012 Washington DC court decision on whether NARA had the power they claimed and exercised against Trump and those documents:
“NARA does not have the authority to designate materials as ‘Presidential records,’ NARA does not have the tapes in question, and NARA lacks any right, duty, or means to seize control of them.”
Similarly missing context in that it ignores the standing precedent of actions by NARA and courts since the PRA was passed into law.
Washington DC court decisions saved Clinton and the retained records he kept outside of NARA knowledge and control. Washington DC courts then said different rules apply when that president is Trump and this NARA Archivist hates Trump and this bureaucrat wants him criminalized. We’ve never seen THAT before!!!! Hello, Vindman… listened in on any Trump phone calls lately?
Now Trump doing pretty much the same in the aftermath of that court decision is “gaming the law for political advantage”. Seriously?
No need to pretend that Trump did pretty much the same as previous presidents like Obama and Clinton. How many THOUSANDS of boxes of documents did Obama take while leaving office to store in an unsecured and unguarded warehouse? Without the slightest whiff of the Archivist making the slightest complaint or even reminding him he needed some form of permission before placing them in a location outside of NARA’s control.
Did Obama and Trump both examine every single record they took with them? Is there any record or claim by Obama that he waved the presidential hand and proclaimed all those documents unclassified as they left the White House box by box?
And Biden’s documents that he stole and then retained as a senator? How about the documents he took after his term as Vice President? The Archivist was completely and totally unaware Vice President Biden took anything with him? Seems like an incredibly incompetent Archivist to miss all of that.
While both are under the theoretical control of NARA, Obama’s documents in the warehouse of his choosing are nowhere close to being as secured as Trump’s documents locked inside his home and guarded 24/7 by a very well armed Secret Service.
Also no need to pretend that nobody is aware that Trump was once again being specifically targeted and hunted by those who went looking to turn what other presidents had done into a criminal investigation and hopefully a criminal prosecution of Trump.
Trump WAS imprudent in not fully recognizing that the FBI and DoJ were still very capable and very motivated to find a way to criminalize him or at least smear him as much as possible. At this point, at the very least his lawyers should have been warning him that he was in legal jeopardy if he assumed he would get the same treatment from the Attorney General, the FBI and the Archivist as Obama and Clinton got before him.
The world saw this in how the same FBI, Merrick Garland and Archivist treated Biden – who was criminally stealing and retaining classified documents as a Senator, starting decades before Trump ever ran for office. No raids on their homes. Like Clinton and her classified documents, repeatedly allowing staffers to look for documents and decide which were classified to turn over to government and which could be retained or destroyed making them unavailable for law enforcement to examine, etc.
Trump was indeed extremely imprudent to assume that after having left office, the Archivist, the FBI, the DoJ – all would treat him no differently than they treated all presidents taking records with them after leaving office. If Trump had assumed that all of them were no different than the leaders of Communist China, North Korea, and Russia, he would have been much better served.
There certainly should be more control over the records and documents presidents AND vice presidents take with them while leaving office. While the Democrats claimed Trump took documents because the billionaire ex-president intended risk prison to sell them to Saudi Arabia for what would be pocket change to him, it is much, MUCH more likely that Biden took records for his son to sell the contents to the highest bidder whether that was Communist China or Putin.
Once again the only certain rule at this point is this: one set of rules for application of laws to Trump; a completely opposite set of rules for applying those laws to Democrat presidents and senators.
That rule extends to who gets picked to be Special Counsel investigating records retained by Trump and who investigates former Senator and Vice President Biden who was stealing and retaining classified documents for decades.
Thanks for this response.
The governors of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois and California have all declared themselves for resistance to Trump. This is the beginning of the campaign among Democrats to become the 2028 nominee. A governor who had the interests of his or her state at heart would seek to find ways to work with the President, not alienate him.
If The Trump presidency turns the page to the advantage of the electorate, such that the quality of their lives is improved, these governors will be hard-pressed to prove their case. The agenda That Newsom has just set forth, It’s not likely that the nation is going to want to be ‘California’d.’
“This is the beginning of the campaign among Democrats to become the 2028 nominee.”
Phil Murphy is term-limited in NJ, and after his sloppy and high-handed reign, if there was an office of “National Dog-Catcher”, I very much doubt that he could get elected to it. Gov. Greusome doesn’t seem to have much more nationwide potential than Murphy. Don’t know that much about the other two govs, but I suspect they would be just as crippled by their past roles.
The lawfare project apparently coordinated or directed by the White House (all of these prosecutors had meetings there) was wrong. Hopefully, that will cease. One of the funniest arguments used by Harris was that Trump was going to go after his enemies while she planned to work on her to-do list, like he hadn’t been the object of their lawfare for the past 3.5 years.
However, there have been several public statements by officials that worry me. These folks have just been run over by a tidal wave and they don’t get it. James and Hochul of NY made threatening statements. Yesterday, Murphy of NJ pledged to “fight to the death.” Trump lost NJ by a mere 5 points! The last governor’s races in both of the dark blue states of NY and NJ were very close. Pritzker of IL made a similar statement. Are these public employees serving the best interests of the people paying their salaries?
I forgot Newsom of CA! WSJ has an article about how he is trying to become relevant and trying to become the leader of the new resistance months before Trump even takes office.
I guess that’s what all of these folks are doing — jockeying to further their careers. At some point, the Peter Principle takes over — I think that they’ve reached the pinnacle of their abilities but perhaps others will feel differently.
* Newsom has become rich robbing the poor and the State legislature is already a wall at 93 dems and 12 repubs? There’s no time for Trump to waste on Newsom as Trump attempts to move the economy judiciously forward in the 27 Republican governorship States.
Newsom has bought himself a paupers’ graveyard.
Maybe. But yesterday’s statement by James amounts to little more than bear scare. She’s a coward, there’s no other way to describe her, and I’m quite certain Trump realizes that.
Gotta love this.
Trump attorney to NY AG: We’ll ‘put your fat a– in prison’ if lawfare against Trump doesn’t end
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/trump-attorney-ny-ag-well-put-your-fat-prison-if-lawfare-against-trump
“She’s a coward, there’s no other way to describe her[.]” How about “fat, ugly and stupid.”
Trump should countersue the Carroll case and all the N.Y. Cases. I have no doubtnthat time will take care of James/Bragg/ and the moronic judges.
The Carroll case was not lawfare. It was a private citizen claiming redress for injury that took place in the early ’90s, long before Trump entered politics as a Republican. The fact that Carroll shared the assault with a trusted associate way back then destroyed Trump’s lame defense that “she made the whole thing up as a political witchhunt”. That means she would have had to have known 20 years in advance that Trump would go into politics, and devise a plot that begins with her phoning her editor friend to lay the groundwork. Ridiculous defense argument that the jury saw for what is was.
The Carroll case is unlike the prosecutions, because it’s brought by a private citizen for something involving a timeframe way before the Trump political era.
As a point of reference, NY State law was changed to extend the statute of limitations in order for THIS case to move forward.
I would love to see if the legislative history made even a slight reference to Trump. The ground work for this Bill of Attainder was prepared well in advance of the Carroll case. It is odd that she wrote about having been raped by several men during her lifetime, but never mentioned anything about Trump. She couldn’t pinpoint even within a few years of when this happened. Then having Reid Hoffman involved makes this case look like the poster child for lawfare.
It was a contrived case planned in George Conways living room. The statute of limitations was specifically extended to accommodate this very civil action. It is a complete fabrication using a couple of fruitcake old harpies to lie up for a millions dollar reward. Anyone that believes this believes SCJ Kavanaugh was the leader of a gangbang.
Move it to a Florida court and see how fast it gets a real law review and thrown out. Ridiculous
Anonymous 7:56AM-Sorry to disagree with you but Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit was underwritten by a well to do Democratic partisan. Rape or sexual assault usually has the highest percentage of withdrawn charges at a rate of nearly 10% in statistics from multiple police depts. The so called rape charges that suddenly appear when athletes get huge contracts has cheapened the belief that all women are to believed. If Ms Carroll had written in her diary or sent dated and confirmed notes to friends or an attorney or had solid evidence then she might have a case. But a memory is very questionable. Memories are flawed and over time can become more about what we thought it was or wished it was than what occurred. When secondary gain rears its head, all bets are off. If she has sued for no money but to right a wrong I might have actually believed her. But having sat on juries, I could never convict some one on memory alone or a friend’s conversation. People lie and do it all the time “for a good cause”.
And just for additional information I have treated women in ER’s after brutal rapes and beatings and worked with the police and DA’s to bring rapists to justice with clearcut medical findings and evidence so I do know the other side also.
Add that Carroll herself appears to joyfully celebrate date-rape, how bizarre is that? Is that typical in such cases?
* Carroll appears to be many cards short of a deck? Even if her story were partially true, it was a trade-off. Tacit consent does apply.
* Take the case of Clinton and Lewinsky. A young and not too bright nor worldly young woman was exposed to the most powerful man in the world and a serial aggressor. Men overwhelmingly took Clinton’s side and called Lewinsky unsavory names. Just go to the police and be done with it or not.
* Women must learn to file police reports immediately. Of course GEB that might increase the murder rate. Carroll really had no case whether it was true or not. It just wasn’t plausible.
The Carroll case appears entirely bogus and one hundred percent wholly political. There was no evidence offered in the case. And yet the jury awarded her a multimillion dollar settlement?
It’s all about the Jury Pool.
Chimps prosecuting and Chumps sitting in the Jury box.
* and the tooth fairy is real…
“she would have had to have known 20 years in advance that Trump would go into politics[.]” No, she would only need to get a friend to lie for her, possibly in exchange for money. Reid Hoffman was bankrolling this prosecution.
The people involved in this travesty will not stop until something painful makes them stop. As we were taught many years ago, communism is process of ” two steps forward, one step back”. What is to prevent these people from continuing to harass Trump and his family after he leaves office ? And, who is financing these attacks ?
The Flying Dutchman will be mercifully scuttled by its crew of despicable pirates, but the “lawfare” weapon will remain in the Democrat armory forever, to be used again and again in the future when they find another tempting target. In their quest for total power over our lives nothing is ever off the table.
They are just licking their wounds now, but just wait. . . .they will find another source of leverage and then it will start all over again.
Any chance the new congress or surpreme court can slow down or elimate lawfare?
well Steve Bannon as AG would!
There need to be consequences for the corrupt prosecutors and corrupt judges who orchestrated this lawfare campaign.
Trump needs to perform on everything that he promised to do. The list is too long to repeat. In order to get sht done he cannot worry about the optics – the enemy and their mockingbird media will depict everything he does as the act of a brutal dictator. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
“Trump needs to perform on everything that he promised to do. ”
“Everything?” He cannot, that is impossible. Particularly some of the promised tax relief just cannot happen with the deficit and debt as it is, unless the debt is written off, which is a huge and contentious issue on its own. Hopefully he has advisors that prioritize a list of what is doable, and he and they can work their way down that.
Trump Derangement Syndrome isn’t an amusing exaggeration, it’s a serious mental illness. These people are mentally ill, and I think expecting them to be guided by logic, or even by reality, is an error.
TDS for government officials it is a CRIME! Russian Hoax was pure Treason and 100’s should go to jail for that
They should all start planning their estates for while they serve time or depending upon their treason, push daisies. Military tribunals, gut the wordsmithing whores of their defensive delays. America witnessed it all.