Trump and the New York show trial
All Americans should be outraged about the show-trial nature of the charges of fraud against Trump in New York. The persecution is obvious and blatant. The tragedy is not really the biased prosecutor and judge, although of course these are awful. The larger tragedy is the acquiescence and approval of so many people who don’t recognize it for what it is, and that our free press has no interest in informing them about what’s going on, because the target is the hated Trump.
And I suppose that more and more people probably have become unaware of what a show trial even is. In fact, they are unaware of the most basic facts of our government, in a survey from a year ago:
Americans’ understanding of basic facts about the U.S. government declined for the first time in six years, as fewer than half in a new survey could name all three branches of government.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s annual Constitution Day Civics Survey found a significant drop in the percentage of Americans who could name all three branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial — falling by 9 percentage points from a year earlier.
About a quarter of Americans surveyed could not name a single branch.
The survey also found a decline in the number of respondents who could name any of the five freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment.
Freedom of religion was named by 24 percent of those surveyed, falling from 56 percent from the previous survey. Those who named freedom of the press also declined sharply down by 30 percentage points from 50 percent in 2021.
Abysmal ignorance, and no accident. Education in these areas has been purposely dumbed down.
But then there’s literature – although again, I wonder how many people read the original anymore:
‘It’s a pun!’ the King added in an offended tone, and everybody laughed, ‘Let the jury consider their verdict,’ the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
‘No, no!’ said the Queen. ‘Sentence first — verdict afterwards.’
‘Stuff and nonsense!’ said Alice loudly. ‘The idea of having the sentence first!’
‘Hold your tongue!’ said the Queen, turning purple.
‘I won’t!’ said Alice.
Off with her head!’ the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. Nobody moved.
‘Who cares for you?’ said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) ‘You’re nothing but a pack of cards!’
Would that that last sentence were the case.
Andrew C. McCarthy – no lover of Trump – harshly criticizes the trial in an article entitled “With Trump Already Found Guilty, His New York Fraud Trial Begins” and sutitled “This isn’t a judicial proceeding; it’s a partisan farce.”
I’m not sure about that word “farce,” because isn’t a farce supposed to be humorous? At any rate, here’s the way the piece begins:
The Bolshevik bloc of the Democratic Party is having its fantasy prosecution of Donald Trump play out in real life in New York City. There, in state attorney general Letitia James’s civil-fraud case against the former president, the trial will begin today even though Trump was already found guilty and sentenced to corporate death last week by a robed apparat named Arthur Engoron.
It doesn’t sound like the same Andrew McCarthy who a few years ago thought James Comey and the FBI would treat Trump fairly. But these current proceedings outrage him, and rightly so.
The same for Alan Dershowitz, who speaks about it in this podcast:
For a not legal mind, to me this judge is judge, jury and executioner.
So much for being innocent UNTIL found guilty. It’s a Kangaroo Court that James said she was going after Trump before she was running for AG.
Perhaps I’m mistaken, but I seem to recall that “fraud” is a difficult tort to prove. In fact, almost every new lawyer is schooled on this point by a more experienced lawyer shortly after graduation from law school. Under NY law, there are five “elements” to fraud: (1) a material misrepresentation; (2) that the accused fraudster knew to be untrue; (3) intended to defraud the plaintiff; (4) reasonably relied upon by the plaintiff; and (5) which resulted in damage to the plaintiff. Each element must be proved.
A material misrepresentation is just the starting point. Leaving aside whether Trump knew his statements were untrue or whether he intended to defraud the banks, no bank could reasonably rely upon the word of a borrower about the value of the collateral–so they have a problem with the fourth element. And I’ve read that Trump never defaulted on the loans allegedly procured through “fraud,” so the fifth element is also tough to prove.
Trump is, and as far back as I remember has been, a consummate blowhard and BSer. Without reasonable reliance and damages, I doubt that many contingency firms would take this case. Just goes to show the mischief that a political hack with an unlimited budget can create when they are accountable to no one.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said, no victim of Trump’s fraud “lodged a complaint” or “otherwise claimed damages.” How can you have a fraud with no one claiming to be defrauded?
In political show trials, law does not constrain the prosecution and no amount of contrary evidence, no amount of facts, logic and reason can stay a guilty verdict. Trump was found guilty long before the trial commenced, they simply haven’t announced it yet. Clearly, some here have not yet accepted much less reflected upon the fact that the rule of law in America is dead and buried.
I assume Judge Engoron took Property in his first year at New York University law school. That’s where lawyers learn that the fair market value of any property is what a willing buyer will offer and a willing seller will accept.
I know I am commenting on an old post- but- as always, we are outraged, but what do we do? I suspect the left is agitating the right deliberately to incite protests and demonstrations so they can hijack them into J6 events. And done of us want to end up in a DC gulag- something that is incredibly outrageous and no one is doing anything about.
ama:
It is also my opinion that the left is hoping for some sort of protest or reaction that will allow them to arrest and imprison a whole bunch more people on the right.
@ Neo – as usual, the Left has set up a “heads we win (no protests to impede us), tails you lose (protests allow us to arrest you)” situation — which is one of the reasons they have reached their position of dominance.
A Gramscian “march” through the institutions of society implies a much more straight-forward process than the one we have increasingly observed.
Mission accomplished!
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