The Patriot Post® · 'He's a Witch' — Trump on Trial

In the 1975 cult classic “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” a mob of villagers seizes a woman, dresses her up like a witch, and brings her for “trial.” Regardless of the silly attempts at evidence, they’ve clearly already made up their minds, repeatedly yelling: “She’s a witch! Burn her!” It’s a hilarious scene, but who knew that it would end up being such a prophetically vivid representation of Democrats’ Trump Derangement Syndrome?

It’s a New York City courtroom instead of a village in medieval England, but the result is the same. The “witch” Donald Trump is guilty because the mob angrily insists that he is.

Trump may not be made of wood and he probably didn’t turn anyone into a newt, but he’s a witch who did … something; Democrats are sure of it. The legal persecution of Trump will continue until something sticks.

In this case, the legal details are liable to make your eyes glaze over, so we’ll summarize it thusly: Trump stands accused of civil fraud by means of falsely inflating real estate values.

Sure, Trump almost undoubtedly embellished his assets, often flagrantly and shamelessly. Trump is accused of overvaluing New York City assets by as much as $2.2 billion, including making some downright laughable claims about Trump Tower square footage and valuation. His boasting is the stuff of legend for a reason. Everyone knows he does it. It’s also the way the game is played in the Big Apple.

But did he default on any loans given based on these values? Did he even secure loans based on false valuation? Was anyone defrauded or otherwise victimized? Was any random bystander even truly deceived by his tall tales?

Not as far as we can tell. In fact, the banks made a profit, as they do with most loans. Even Judge Arthur Engoron admitted, “Defendants correctly assert that ‘the record is devoid of any evidence of default, breach, late payment, or any complaint of harm.’”

And that’s entirely beside the point for the Democrat villagers convinced in their bones that Trump is a witch.

Unfortunately, it’s also apparently beside the point regarding New York law. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy aptly explains the details, if you’re interested. For our purposes here, we’ll simply note that New York Attorney General Letitia “Two-Tiered Justice” James only has to prove that Trump lied, not that any harm was done. To help her case, she wore her contempt for Trump all over her face during yesterday’s first day of trial. Remember, this is the woman who, upon her election victory in 2018, promised to abuse her power in order to take down Trump.

Speaking on that show trial, Engoron is presiding over a bench trial, so he alone will decide Trump’s guilt and sentencing. Engoron is also a lifelong Democrat donor, and he wasted no time literally posing and smiling for the cameras in his courtroom. He seems quite happily predisposed to agree with the prosecution’s request that Trump be fined $250 million and be banned from doing business in New York. He already last week issued a pre-trial judgment revoking Trump’s licenses to operate properties in New York.

Trump certainly knows the score, and he’s not bothering with the niceties of ingratiating himself. “This is a judge that should be disbarred,” he complained Monday. “This is a judge that should be out of office. This is a judge that some people say could be charged criminally for what he’s doing. He’s interfering with an election, and it’s a disgrace.”

He also called James “corrupt and racist” — sorry, “CORRUPT & RACIST” — on social media.

Trump’s supporters also know the score, and they don’t care about a single solitary detail of any case against him. Because it is all obviously partisanship, none of Trump’s legal troubles carry the slightest bit of weight. Because it’s transparently political, supporters dismiss all of it and rally around their man.

Democrats are counting on that, of course, to ensure that he’s the GOP nominee. That could backfire, of course, but even pretending to be afraid of it backfiring plays into the strategy. The whole charade works all the better if Trump supporters and fence-sitters start to think Trump really can win next year.

It’s why Democrats are shamelessly arguing a tiny handful of legitimate legal issues amidst a cavalcade of preposterous allegations and distortions of law. Four indictments on 91 charges, as well as civil suits like the one that kicked off in New York Monday, are all engineered to generate support for Trump on the Right and hatred for him everywhere else.

To Democrats, Trump is a witch, and they’ve got a stake ready on which to burn him — preferably as the GOP nominee in the 2024 general election.