Beating President Trump into the ground like a tent peg has been the obsession of the radical left by Democrats and their crony elitist east coast news media. It started as soon as he announced his presidential candidacy.
In fact, they were so sure that they would beat him in 2016 that the news reports were unequivocal in their claims – declaring a Hillary Clinton victory as a matter of fact even as the polls were closing on Election Day. It was only in the later hours of the evening that their arrogant reports — based on wishful thinking and an utter disconnect with the American people in fly-over America – were humiliatingly refuted.
The cries of impeachment rose from the left even before Trump took the oath of office.
Upon inauguration, bad actors at the highest levels of the American intelligence community immediately began to roll out their “insurance plan” to have Trump removed from office – a specious investigation based on bogus information that Trump & Company had been criminally conspiring with the Russian meddling in the election. Two years of investigation at a cost of more than $35 million dollars resulted in the complete exoneration of Trump and his people. Special Counsel Robert Mueller declared that “no American” had conspired with the Russians.
With an impeachment looking for a rationale, Democrats seized on a conversation between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — claiming that Trump was seeking foreign assistance in the 2020 campaign. Since impeachment is purely a partisan political action, the Democrat-controlled House voted Articles of Impeachment in which there were no alleged criminal activities – an impeachment that they knew was doomed to failure.
After rioting broke out on Capitol Hill, Democrats yet again saw an opportunity to launch a second impeachment just days before Trump was leaving office.
They literally impeached a President of the United States in a quickie vote without a single witness, highly interpretive evidence and no opportunity for a proper defense. Once again, Trump was acquitted.
But the hyper agitated left is not about to let up. No sooner had the news of the acquittal been announced than those residing in the left wing of the Fourth Estate began to predict with great hope that Trump still would face a dizzying array of court actions which – in their judgment – he will not win.
It is political vigilantism. Democrats are going after Trump with all the rabid, teeth-baring hatred they deployed against run-away slaves in the old south.
Once again, however, Democrats and their media allies appear to be getting out over their skis. Their dark desires are blinding them to legal realities.
Wishful thinking is trumping rational analysis.
They see Trump being bogged down in courts – and eventually incarcerated – in the near future. They refer to the investigation of the Trump Organization by the Southern District of New York. Other cases for various perceived crimes have been – or will be – filed by the New York Attorney General and a couple of States’ Attorneys in a couple of southern counties. There is talk about charges associated with the January 6th riot being filed in Washington. It should be noted that all these potential cases are being filed by Democrat prosecutors.
The left is hoping – and sometimes predicting – that when Judge Merrick Garland assumes the post of United States Attorney General, he will unleash a barrage of criminal investigations against Trump. Though the impeachment failed, they believe the very same charges of sedition, citing a riot, etc., etc., can be – and will be – successfully litigated by the Department of Justice.
In my opinion, the left is setting themselves up for the next great disappointment and humiliation –again revealing the political animus and visceral hatred that drives their obsessive actions.
Most of the pending or potential cases are going to die on the vine. Some are so minor that even if Trump were to be found guilty of some civil infraction, he would wind up paying a small fine.
A more serious threat may be the case against the Trump Organization and the continuing effort to legally obtain his tax returns. The worst-case scenario for Trump would be a large fine leveled against his company. Even if he was personally convicted in such a case, it would not likely result in any jail time. Also, such a case could be continuing in the courts beyond the 2024 presidential election.
In terms of the charges that Democrats leveled against Trump in connection with the Capitol Hill riots, it is only the Justice Department that would have the jurisdiction and resources to litigate them – and personally, I do not believe that President Biden or then-Attorney General Garland would pursue the matter.
There is a good and practical political reason not to pursue charges in the courts.
Trump would probably win. Courts have a much higher standard of evidence than was presented by the House Managers in the impeachment trial. That is not only my opinion. Preetinder Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney from the Southern District of New York – who was summarily fired by Trump, btw – has told reporters that it would be “a higher hill to climb” than in the impeachment.
That is because – as he noted – newspaper clippings and many of the videos would not be allowed in a court-of-law. Nor would hearsay evidence. The impeachment case was founded almost completely on those two extralegal offerings.
In court, they would need more than a one-sided opinion of Trump’s frame-of-mind and his intent. Keep in mind that virtually every time one of the House Managers alleged what Trump was thinking, the same claim in court would win objection — would be inadmissible without hard evidential support.
The intent of the first impeachment of Trump was on the hope of having him removed – and putting a blot on his historic record. With no hope of conviction, the second impeachment was again to put a stain on his record AND to prevent him from running for President again in 2024 – with an ancillary goal of damaging Republican prospects in the 2022 midterm elections.
In every attempt to take down Trump, the Democrats and the media have had to settle for a participation trophy. Their only hope now is that they have damaged him enough to prevent him from gaining sufficient public support for another run. That may look like an impossible ambition at this moment, but it is possible for Trump to re-invent himself and become viable in 2024. That is what scares the Hell out of the Democrats, the elitist news media and a number of Republicans.
So, there ‘tis.