Trump prosecution disappointment

The grand jury looking into how Donald J. Trump spent some campaign money will reconvene today – maybe. We don’t know – but we do know that the lack of any indictment thus far, is a great disappointment to the American left. Or it certainly should be, considering that things have not turned out as they boasted. A new Twitter thread makes that boasting embarrassingly clear.

This time Trump gets it!

User WarClandestine, on Twitter, put together a thread of embedded video and quoted tweets. All of them say the same thing: Trump is evil, and now he has run out of time.

Reaction to this thread runs about two to one in favor. These tweets are typical:

One user guessed – probably correctly – that Trump used the rumor of his impending arrest to great tactical advantage.

Did Trump simply guess wrong? Maybe – but most probably not.

This meme – with apologies to the estate of Charles M. Schulz – is our favorite:

Analysis

Recall that Trump seems no closer to an arrest now than he did at any time after he left office. To the contrary, New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg stands accused of withholding evidence. He canceled a grand jury session slated for last Wednesday. Though he convened the grand jury Thursday, he then dismissed it for the rest of the week. Technically the grand jury is on schedule to reconvene later today. Whether it actually will, or not, remains for us to see. In the meantime, one each Representative and Senator want to see Bragg arrested for withholding evidence.

The pressure on Bragg and his office must be telling. The New York Post reports that a member of the D.A.’s staff rudely answered a member of House Judiciary Committee staff who called that office for information on the Trump case. The Post has only an anonymous source for this interaction, but apparently it went like this. The Judiciary Committee employee called Bragg’s office and barely identified himself before the one answering the telephone, hung up. So he called back. Apparently a different female employee answered him back,

Your committee has no jurisdiction over us. You’re wrong. Stop calling us with this …

That last word is unprintable.

A partisan prosecutor’s office

Mr. PFWTS then said:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any government entity respond to Congress in that manner. It’s quite embarrassing, but I don’t think anyone is surprised based on how partisan that office has become.

That office was anything but partisan in the thirty-four years that Robert Morgenthau ran it. In fact he had no opposition in election after election from 1985 to 2005.

He was just as willing to prosecute white-collar crime as violent crime. One member of the defense bar said he felt just as great a need to prosecute “crime in the suites” as “crime in the streets.” But we’ll likely never know whether he would have even attempted to prosecute Donald Trump with the evidence Alvin Bragg allegedly has.

Sadly, the New York County D.A.’s office has nothing in common with the office Robert Morgenthau ran and left. Then again, Alvin Bragg was not part of Morgenthau’s office. Worse, he has a reputation for failing to prosecute even violent offenders – and instead prosecuting those who defend themselves against violent attack.

Bragg is likely trying to drop the case against Trump after it blew up in his face. But New York’s voters must decide whether they really want a political District Attorney who cares little about crime victims. Trump, meanwhile, has emerged stronger than ever – which cannot make the left happy.