Welcome to Venezuela!
As Jesse Watters on Fox said: “He was convicted for having beaten [Hillary] Clinton in 2016 and for going to beat [Joe] Biden in 2024.”
This was no surprise.
But who and what was really on trial?
RELATED: Twelve Corrupt Jurors
It is the law itself. And the legal system, ignoring the Constitution to the end, has testified against itself, although it probably hasn’t realized it yet.
In the meantime, the rule of law has suffered a terrible blow. And it is up to the courts of appeal to rescue it.
Even more, it is up to the people. It is the people in the end who will decide whether our law is to be politicized at its core or if it will once again stand for preserving the liberties of the people.
It’s good to sum up what is exactly wrong with this monstrous case. Megyn Kelly noted on April 30:
There is no New York law that makes a crime of paying off a newspaper or a person to not write a story. So, Bragg has decided that Trump’s non-disclosure deal was a violation of federal election statutes, which the state law had incorporated by reference to whatever they might precisely be.
As I noted in The American Spectator on May 3, New York’s Constitution specifically forbids legislation to incorporate by reference, and its courts have understood that to mean that one cannot make the basis of criminality a statute of another state or the federal government. (READ THE PIECE: Alvin Bragg Is as Corrupt as the New York Robber Barons)
It seemed that the federal violation incorporated in that the statute under which former President Donald Trump has been tried was a federal election campaign statute of some sort. That doesn’t matter much under the New York Constitution.
But what does matter is the astonishing direction Judge Juan Merchan gave the jury. Here is a crucial section:
Although you must conclude unanimously that the defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means, you need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were.
Now, this law under which Trump is being prosecuted was designed to evade the statute of limitations that applied to the bookkeeping issue that is alleged to have happened. It upped the act to a felony if it was done as part of a conspiracy to another crime.
But even though this whole prosecution falls apart without the other crime, the judge tells the jury it doesn’t matter the exact nature of the unlawfulness at the core.
What that means is that the core crime can be — whatever!
There is a small problem with this. It lies in the Sixth Amendment, a part of the Bill of Rights. Among other things, the amendment states:
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.
As fleshed out in an 1875 Supreme Court decision, United States v. Cruikshank, this means that “the accused must be advised of the essential particulars of the charge against him,” not just vague generalities. Otherwise, it becomes inordinately difficult to prepare a defense.
Cruikshank gives as an example a charge of cheating and fraud. The opinion reads:
[A]n indictment for such an offence must contain allegations setting forth the means proposed to be used to accomplish the purpose. This because, to make such a purpose criminal, the conspiracy must be to cheat and defraud in a mode made criminal by statute; and, as all cheating and defrauding has not been made criminal, it is necessary for the indictment to state the means proposed, in order that the court may see that they are in fact illegal.
But here, it seems to be, whether in a faulty law or a faulty instruction, that the crucial element can be — whatever, and no unanimity is needed for the only fact that makes this prosecutable.
Now the jury has delivered its verdict. It is important for us all to note the bizarre twists and turns that took place when the justice system is perverted to accomplish political ends.
There is no crime in “paying hush money.” Non-disclosure agreements are not illegal. They do not constitute corruption under law. The only thing that makes any of these acts actionable under law is their being upped to a felony by being referenced to a federal campaign law. There is no law against keeping information from voters unless such information was required by law to be disclosed. Just ask Barry about his withholding of his student records. Just ask Joe Biden of the knowing deceit of the public by his crew about the Hunter laptop — the evidence they knew was true about Biden’s corruption.
But it has not been about law or principle. It has been about power trumping everything and revenge on those who would dare to challenge it.
It’s a shameful chapter in our history, one we must learn to make sure doesn’t happen again.
But we the people can retake our laws and our government. We can reject the Venezuela-ization of our country. No one can stop us.
As Trump said, the people will have the final say.
READ MORE on the New York verdict:
This Is Not America. It’s Manhattan.
Post-Trump Verdict, Will the American Right Finally Wake Up?
