Republicans threaten frivolous prosecutions of distinguished Democrats in retaliation for Trump prices

Right here’s Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer on Fox News:

I’ll inform you one of many issues that I don’t assume’s been picked up rather a lot that’s going to be an issue: I had two calls yesterday, one from a county lawyer in Kentucky and one from a county lawyer in Tennessee. They have been Republican, clearly, each states are closely Republican. They wish to know if there are methods they’ll go after the Bidens now. They’ve opened up a can of worms, they’ve set precedents now that we will’t return on.

The “one of many issues that I don’t assume’s been picked up on rather a lot” half is especially humorous since a lawyer whose agency represents some Trump advisers made exactly this argument in The New York Instances final week, when it was simply as dishonest as it’s coming from Comer. The can of worms is just opened up should you take with no consideration that Bragg’s prosecution was purely political, and even should you grant that—a large stretch given the documentation on supply—Bragg is the prosecutor the place Trump did the factor that’s allegedly against the law. How is an area prosecutor in Kentucky or Tennessee going to tie any Bidens to alleged crimes of their county?

However word the lack of pretense that that is about something however retaliation. There’s the cursory gesture at remorse that precedents have been set “that we will’t return on,” however that’s in protection of a declare that this can be a precedent for issues it’s not a precedent for. Michael Cohen went to jail for his function on this scheme and the Trump Justice Division worked to avert further investigations. Whether or not Bragg could make the case that what Trump personally did was a violation of New York felony regulation stays to be seen—once more, Trump’s legal professionals could have the possibility to aggressively defend their shopper—however the prices in opposition to Trump are a far cry from a Kentucky county lawyer saying “Can I’m going after the Bidens for … one thing?” (Comer, keep in mind, was whining about the lack of prosecution of Beau Biden earlier than Bragg indicting Trump appeared like a critical probability.)

Comer wasn’t the one one making this menace. Showing on Fox Information, former George W. Bush official Ari Fleischer was even more explicit about it as a menace and as retaliation.

“One of many raps in opposition to Donald Trump is that he violates the norms, and consequently the Democrats had no selection, prosecutors had no selection. However Sean, what’s occurred to Donald Trump is definitely the true violation of the norms,” Fleischer stated, relating (and mendacity about) the impeachments of Trump and framing Bragg’s prosecution as wholly political. The implication is that no quantity of wrongdoing by Trump might justify Democrats taking motion in opposition to him—the response to Trump’s actions will all the time be the extra profound violation of norms.

Then Fleischer moved on to the retaliation half.

Right here’s what I hope occurs, Sean. I earnestly hope that conservative prosecutors in rural areas of America indict Invoice Clinton, indict Hillary Clinton, indict Hunter Biden. Their solely approach and return to the norms is for one facet to appreciate in the event that they go too far the opposite will match them. And that’s not the best way we settle our disputes in America, they need to be settled on the poll field, not via the courts, however Republicans can’t unilaterally disarm. You may’t allow them to attempt to intrude within the 2024 election by doing to Donald Trump what they’re doing. And I say that as any individual who will criticize Donald Trump when he goes too far. The Democrats are violating the norms they usually’re particularly doing it via this case, this weak case, in Manhattan.

Invoice Clinton? Hillary Clinton? Republicans are additionally complaining that the crimes Trump is charged with ought to have handed the statute of limitations, however Fleischer desires native prosecutors reaching again to, what, the Nineties to get Invoice Clinton? And it appears secure to imagine that if the Justice Division below Trump couldn’t discover a approach to “lock her up,” there’s nothing to prosecute Hillary Clinton for. Perhaps Hunter Biden went on a bender in a county with a Republican prosecutor someday, however this can be a ridiculous concept except you’re solely motivated by revenge—which Fleischer can confidently assume his viewers on Sean Hannity’s present is.

Fleischer, as a Republican of the Karl Rove college, additionally is aware of that projection is the best way to go, accusing Democrats of attempting to intrude within the 2024 election to distract from the truth that Trump’s alleged crimes are about an effort to cowl up his sexual encounters till after the 2016 election, and shifting the burden of “violating the norms” from Trump onto Democrats. However we’re not speaking about norms right here. We’re speaking about legal guidelines, and whether or not Trump broke them.

Republicans can’t be allowed to shift the query from the place it belongs—can the Manhattan DA show that Trump broke the regulation and get a jury to convict him?—to those outlandish “can of worms” retaliation schemes. There are sufficient bold Republican prosecutors on this nation that in the event that they thought they may get a court docket to permit them to cost Invoice Clinton or Hillary Clinton or Hunter Biden with against the law, they might have already got performed it. This isn’t a critical menace of authorized motion, it’s a media technique, and it’s the media’s job (outdoors of Fox Information, which is clearly pushing it) to make sure that it fails to achieve traction.

Our deliberate Ukraine episode should wait, as Donald Trump is being arraigned in New York Metropolis for his function in falsifying data to cover hush cash paid to Stormy Daniels. That is the primary of a possible slew of indictments coming Trump’s approach, and we’re right here for a celebration of karmic justice—and to speak about what occurs to the Republican Social gathering after this.