Rule of Law for Everyone

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | June 8, 2024

Republican Larry Hogan is the former governor of Maryland now running for the U.S. Senate. Commenting on the Donald Trump trial, he asked Americans of all stripes to “... respect the verdict and the legal process... We must reaffirm what made this nation great: the rule of law.”

Lara Trump, the ex-president’s daughter-in-law and current co-chair of the Republican National Committee, had this response: “... I don't support what he just said there. I think it’s ridiculous. He doesn't deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican party...”

That’s where the MAGA wing of the Republican party now stands—support for the rule of law generates criticism and derision from what passes for their leadership. Our country’s foundational principles no longer apply unless they somehow support and defend the Trump cult.

It’s a sickness that has infected previously rational and mainstream Republicans now in thrall to a series of delusions, outright lies, and just plain nonsense.

We have a good example of how destructive this sickness can be right here in Congressional District 1 with our own member of Congress, Jack Bergman. His response to the Trump verdict—or at least that likely written by a staffer and then distributed by his office—was full-throated MAGA but not much truth-telling. The trial and verdict, the statement said, was proof of the “... weaponization of our justice system... sham of a trial has been political from start to finish and indicative of the Banana Republic that President Biden is hell-bent on turning us into...”

Uh-huh.

Apparently, Congressman Bergman no longer believes in our judicial system simply because a verdict didn’t go the way he wanted it to. It’s a safe bet neither he nor most of the others now caterwauling actually know what the charges against Trump were and how clear were the violations of law. Bergman must believe Trump need not obey those pesky laws, and MAGA world is willing to agree no matter how bizarrely irrational it sounds.

A disgrace? A witch hunt? A Banana Republic? A sham? Joe Biden’s doing? Political from start to finish? Please.

This was a local case brought by a locally-elected district attorney. The federal government was not involved. And it wasn’t the Daniels payment that was the big problem but the cascade of incompetent criminal cover-ups that followed, resulting in the filing of false documents, among other crimes.

The 23 regular citizens who comprised the grand jury, and whose political affiliations are unknown, didn’t think it was a sham; they thought there was just cause to believe 34 separate felonies might have been committed and should be tried. Quite unlike a Banana Republic, we held the trial in open court, and the testimony was reported by multiple television and radio networks plus the print media. The 12 regular citizens who sat on the jury, political affiliations not clear, didn’t think it was a sham; they thought 34 felonies had, in fact, been committed and voted to convict on all of them.

No witch hunt and no sham, but a fairly mundane trial in which paperwork was fudged to cover up an embarrassment. Not exactly the crimes of the century—they were the lowest level of felonies—but still 35 citizens comprising a grand jury and a trial jury thought crimes had been committed. Trump, as a first time offender of lowest level felonies, is unlikely to serve jail time.

These crimes, petty, foolish, and arrogant, could have been avoided completely had the defendant been more honorable and smarter. For example, he could have not slept with adult film star Stormy Daniels soon after his wife gave birth to their son. He could have opted not to pay Daniels $130,000 in “hush money” for a dalliance he claims never happened. Once the lies started he could have acknowledged the mistakes literally years ago, likely worked out a plea agreement, and avoided trial and 34 felony convictions altogether. This all could have been in his rearview mirror long ago but, instead, Trump chose the deny-everything-attack-everybody strategy he so loves. He lost.

But what about the fact there was no real victim, the Trump apologists wonder—no victim, no crime. Okay, but there’s no victim in the Hunter Biden gun possession case, either, but we don’t hear Fox News or the MAGA cult complaining about that at all.

We have to assume the New York legislature enacted these statutes at some point for a reason, and a jury has determined Donald Trump violated those statutes. Sometimes the victim is the law.

We either believe in the rule of law for everyone, or we don’t. If that law isn’t applied equally to all of us, president and pauper alike, then we have no legal system to protect, and no constitution to defend.