“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.”
–Lavrentiy Beria,
the most ruthless and longest-serving secret police chief in
Joseph Stalin’s reign of terror in Russia and Eastern Europe,
bragged that he could prove criminal conduct on anyone, even
the innocent.
_
Today in a state trial court in New York, a jury returned “Guilty” verdicts against President Trump on 34 counts. The Prosecutor tied one alleged crime of Falsifying Business Records to 34 documents linked to President Trump’s business enterprises. It was alleged that records were falsified “with intent to commit another crime.” That “other crime” was never defined.
For over four years I served as a New Jersey Superior Court Judge, most of that time in the Criminal Court. I watched and read as much of the coverage of this trial as I could over the past several weeks. I read the entire indictment and statement of facts long ago. In monitoring the trial, I was routinely astounded at how these proceedings seemed to run afoul of the basic conflict of interest rules and utilized procedures that appeared to insult the fundamental fairness in criminal trials that we must afford every criminal defendant. Worst of all, the instructions to the jury appear to have led the jury to a place where they had no choice but to convict.
When a District Attorney attempts to create new offenses that did not previously exist brings novel indictments that have literally never been seen before, one must question the motivations of that D.A. Worse, criminal defendants must have clear notice of the crime with which they are charged so that they may determine their defense. When the indictment is vague, the proceeding becomes an unconstitutional violation of Due Process.
Today, I have serious concerns and fears about the use of our Criminal Justice system for purely political purposes. A Democratic Judge who has contributed to Joe Biden and whose daughter is a political consultant for some of President Trump’s most ardent critics. A Democratic Prosecutor who promised to get Trump. A jury pool in a venue that voted nearly 90% for Joe Biden in 2020.
In America, if we are to engage in the prosecution of former Presidents and major political figures, even in the midst of election campaigns, we should follow a much higher standard. We should go to extremes to eliminate even the slightest appearance of impropriety or conflict of interest. We should work toward an outcome that every American can look at and believe that the process was fair and legally sound. None of that happened in The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump. Consequently, no one can have faith in this outcome.
Americans now find themselves in completely uncharted waters. The presumptive nominee of the Republican Party was just put on trial by his political opponents and convicted under circumstances that don’t pass the smell test. One must fear what might be next. Where do we find faith in an already very damaged electoral process?
At moments like this, we must have faith in the American experiment and in each other. To paraphrase the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, it is upon us now to be rededicated to the great task remaining before us — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
November 5, 2024, will be here shortly.
It is my belief that Americans will vote to re-elect Donald J. Trump President of the United States. I believe Americans feels that is the only way that we can pull back from the brink of being a nation where our criminal justice system is weaponized to convict political adversaries. Only then can we remove these policies that led to an open border with drugs and criminals flowing across, led to a lack of respect for Law Enforcement and to catch-and-release bail and led to violent and murderous riots being described as “mostly peaceful.”
Friends ask me, “What do we do?” My answer is: We vote. We organize. We work. We campaign and we turn out the vote. That is how we save America. At the ballot box, through the mail or in person. As one friend put it, “We don’t meet them in the middle. We don’t accept their insane version of reality. We don’t play by their rules. We beat them at the polls. We beat them. We beat them. And then we beat them again.
