There was no real crime in Trump’s trial, but the United States just lost something it can never get back

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Donald Trump did not lose on Thursday. Our once revered legal system did. And, by extension, every American lost something precious. Because the failure of justice is a failure of the people.
The former president’s sentence in a Manhattan court was predetermined. With the inexorable verdict, the ideals of a fair trial and an impartial jury faded away and were left in the imagination of our Founders. They knew that the worst oppression is exercised by the color of the law. They feared it and tried to prevent it. So they have lost too.
No reversal of the appeal can erase the ugly stain. It is indelible. Ethical integrity, equal justice and the revered rule of law became the fatal victims of this attack on freedom. No actual crime was found. Prosecutors simply invented one: an open-ended conspiracy that was objectively impossible and not supported by any criminal code.
TRUMP IS GUILTY ON ALL CHARGES IN CRIMINAL TRIAL IN NEW YORK
The trial itself, which lasted five agonizing weeks, seemed a mere formality, an empty exercise. An accounting entry magically transformed from an expired misdemeanor to an active felony the same way a porcupine transforms into a prince.
During the trial, the defendant was never informed of his alleged criminal conduct. It was an egregious violation of his Sixth Amendment rights. Jurors were then offered a creative menu of three possibilities and informed that our cherished constitutional principle of unanimity had gone the way of the dodo. We still don’t know—and may never know—what conspiracy Trump allegedly committed.
The tragic conclusion of the Trump trial is that Americans can no longer trust our justice system. Faith has been wasted.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg proved English philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham right. “It is never the law itself that is wrong; it is always some evil interpreter of the law who has corrupted and abused it.”
But Bragg did not act alone. His accomplice and co-prosecutor, Judge Juan Merchán, blithely ignored established rules of evidence, manipulated admissibility standards to favor the prosecution, sanctioned damaging testimony devoid of probative value, and helped engineer an unjust conviction by depriving Trump of a full and legitimate trial. He defends what he had the right to. Merchan did all this without conscience or regret.
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There was never any plausible evidence that Trump committed crimes. There was no legal basis for the accusation. The facts were artificial or exaggerated. The statutes were perverted or ignored. Law enforcers became lawbreakers. Bragg’s plan to exploit a pathological liar and convicted perjurer as his star witness was a devious maneuver by an unscrupulous prosecutor.
At that point, Cohen lied to the jury, just as he had lied to everyone else. It was no surprise coming from a man who told Congress: “I have lied, but I am not a liar.” That is a twisted syllogism of an unbearable reprobate.
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The problem with liars is that, for them, the truth has no meaning. They are unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. They lie to themselves about their own lies. But that didn’t stop Bragg and his co-conspirators from exploiting Cohen’s skills as an expert evader in his relentless quest to convict Trump.
Did they bribe perjury? Absolutely. They knew Cohen would lie. They wanted me to do it. It did not disappoint.
Bragg never had the authority to bring a case against Trump based on federal campaign finance violations, which appeared to be the centerpiece of his wild case. That’s why he hid it until the end. A competent or impartial judge would never have allowed it. Merchan was neither.
The tragic conclusion of the Trump trial is that Americans can no longer trust our justice system. Faith has been wasted. If it can be used as a weapon against a former president, it can happen to any of us. We are all at risk.
When a district attorney, who is a powerful force in government, abuses his position of trust to subvert the legal process, and when a judge acts in concert to dismantle a defendant’s due process rights, our justice system suffers. threatened. Reverence for the rule of law is lost.
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It was John Adams who said, “Ours is a government of laws and not of men.”
Unfortunately, it no longer exists.
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