Why We Ask: Our mission and operations are funded 100% by conservatives like you. Please help us continue to extend Liberty to the next generation and support the 2024 Year-End Campaign today.

March 20, 2024

The Lawfare Scorecard

It’s election interference on a grand scale. We must not reward it.

We’re now well past the point that any cogent American voter could believe that the barrage of legal actions against former president and 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump is actually about justice. The blitz targeting Trump includes six separate civil and criminal cases, charges of 91 felonies, the potential for hundreds of years of prison sentences, and crippling financial penalties.

Trump’s alleged offenses vary widely and happened years (and, in one case, decades) ago. The legal actions have all been timed to hit the airwaves and TV screens during the heart of the 2024 presidential election season, with the obvious intent to derail his prospects for return to the White House.

No doubt some consider that a noble objective — except for the sticky detail that it’s the job of the electorate to make that call, not political incumbents trying to stay in power. Remind me, please: Which party is being accused of threatening American democracy?

Is it working? So far, the civil suits are exceeding the expectations of the Trump destroyers.

Columnist E. Jean Carroll convinced a Manhattan jury that Trump sexually assaulted her decades ago. She couldn’t remember the date or even the year, but she was sure it happened in the Bergdorf-Goodman dressing room. She won $5 million in defamation damages. When Trump squawked publicly, she sued again for defamation of character, for which a different Manhattan jury awarded her an additional $83 million.

A month later, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, who’d run for that office on the promise that she would “get Trump,” hit the real jackpot. Her civil suit accused Trump of fraud in overstating his wealth in loan applications. The ultra-receptive liberal judge hearing the case (no jury required) issued a summary judgment confirming that the fraud happened — effectively finding Trump guilty of fraud without his defrauding anyone — and decided on a staggering penalty of nearly half a billion dollars and imposing major constraints on the operation of the Trump family business.

It gets uglier. As of this writing, Trump is finding it impossible to post the bond required for appeal (where does one go to borrow $464 million?), and now James is threatening to seize his assets.

Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dredged up an eight-year-old allegation that Trump’s acknowledged hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels was improperly treated as a business expense rather than a 2016 campaign contribution — a charge that was examined and dropped years ago by federal prosecutors in NYC. For what would normally be a misdemeanor bookkeeping offense, the indictment won by Bragg ratchets up to 34 felonies.

There is also Trump’s pending case of mishandling classified documents. While the allegations seem well founded, the case is now notable because Trump’s actions, as charged, were substantially less egregious than those of Joe Biden, whom DOJ Special Counsel Robert Hur chose not to charge because of Biden’s reduced cognitive capability. Let that sink in: Biden skates while his attorney general prosecutes his election opponent for essentially the same offense.

Among all the legal salvos fired at Donald Trump, only two relate to his disruptive challenges to behavior following the 2020 election: the Georgia and federal election interference cases. In Georgia, Fulton County DA Fani Willis — another self-styled Trump pursuer — has watched her case unravel because of her own misconduct. But its larger weakness is that her indictment characterizes Trump’s and his co-defendants’ efforts to challenge the Georgia election results as a mob-style racketeering enterprise, subject to Georgia’s RICO statutes. Really?

DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case seems more substantial. It attempts to nail Trump for his role in obstructing the 2020 election certification and the peaceful post-election transfer of power. Notably, the overused — and wildly incorrect — term “insurrection” appears nowhere in his charge.

In my view, if that were the only case against Trump, and if it had been pursued by the DOJ in a timely manner (it took Congress only one day to decide to impeach Trump for the same offense), the voting public might take the Democrats’ “lawfare” at face value. But as part of an orchestrated bombardment, it gets lost in the noise.

The Lawfare Scorecard, in summary:

The civil suits, particularly the bizarre New York State victimless fraud case, have had devastating financial effects on Donald Trump, his sons, and their family business. Unless reversed or greatly diminished on appeal, a single ruling may destroy their family business and affect thousands of New Yorkers — an extraordinary injustice.

On the criminal matters, Trump is again displaying his boundless energy and resilience. The cases are complex and are proving difficult to resolve, but some may make it to the finish line before the November 5 election. Without question, and regardless of the outcome, they are affecting the election.

So far, the obviously politically motivated lawfare seems to be working to Trump’s advantage. However, conviction on even a single charge could throw the election to Biden. And if elected, Trump will surely be deeply engaged in appeals and additional legal proceedings — all of which will unnecessarily get in the way of the nation’s business.

The inescapable reality is that the current administration and its political allies are using the full force of government to destroy Donald Trump politically, financially, and personally. Doing so constitutes unprecedented interference in an American election. If successful, it is likely to open the floodgates of similar improper action by both parties in the future.

Readers, please note: This column is not an endorsement of the Trump candidacy. I’ve made clear in numerous columns that I do not believe he is the right GOP candidate for 2024. But regardless of your views on Trump, no American voter should reward election interference on this scale.

It may be that no one is above the law. But some are intentionally crushed by it.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.