THE CANDIDATE AND THE COURTS

Ridgeview News will forever stand in defense of the First Amendment. The opinion of this writers is not the opinion of the Ridgeview News – Shari Johnson, Publisher.

Submitted by Deirdre Purdy, Chairwoman, Democrat Executive Committee

I’m retired now, but for several decades I specialized in federal criminal defense, so people ask me about the Trump cases.  

Their most frequent question – “Will he get jail time?  Will he go to prison?”  Yes, I think Judge Chutkan, for one, would not hesitate to treat him like any other convicted defendant and impose a prison sentence.

But to the implied conclusion that a prison sentence would somehow end his candidacy or prevent him from becoming president, the answer is no.  

Trump counts on his election to save his legal bacon, and he’s right.  If he becomes a duly elected president, he will be unstoppable.  That’s exactly why he’s running – for his Get Out of Jail Free card.  Only a Biden victory can prevent it.

Trump’s indictments on 91 felony counts give him a courtroom stage where his protests, name calling and general disruption stand out and garner even more coverage as they contrast with the formal order of the court and undermine its authority.

Trump has tied the courts in knots balancing his core political speech as a candidate against the orderly administration of justice.  

Trump has not a scintilla of interest in the orderly administration of justice.  The more chaotic he makes it look, the more unfair it seems to his supporters.  Just as he yells in all caps, he’s a victim of the deep state and the politicized, weaponized justice system.

Meanwhile, as a candidate, Trump is getting more free speech than any defendant would ever be allowed.  A defendant who denounced the “racist AG,” the “psycho” judge, and his “corrupt” clerk, for conspiring with Joe Biden and others to “DESTROY OUR COUNTRY” would likely be sent to a Federal Medical Center for a psych eval.  An FMC is a federal prison with docs and meds.  

Trial courts impose gag orders to stop Trump’s attacks on witnesses, court staff, judges and prosecutors.  Appeal courts finick around the words – can he not “target” or “disparage,” or is it “attack?” Meanwhile, Trump mocks the whole process by targeting, attacking, disparaging, smearing, and discrediting anyone he hasn’t been ordered not to: “You didn’t say I couldn’t target the judge’s wife.”

Step by step, Trump is discrediting the American justice system.  He delays, he appeals.  As a former president and current candidate, every step in the judicial process does raise unprecedented issues.  But to those issues, Trump requires his lawyers to throw up every spurious and ridiculous argument he can think of, mocking not just the law, but reason itself.  

Nevertheless, the prosecutors and courts will do their jobs – as they must – charging crimes where there is probable cause, protecting Defendant candidateTrump’s right to core political speech, and giving Defendant Trump a fair trial, no matter how hard he works to derail and corrupt the process.

As a result, before the 2024 election, Trump will almost surely be convicted of a felony, maybe on the four felony counts in the January 6 insurrection case.  Polling suggests that fewer people would vote for him if he’s a convicted felon.  But simply being a convicted felon is no bar to running for president or to being elected.

The Constitutional requirements to be president are minimal:  A person must be at least 35 years old, be a natural-born citizen and have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years.  Courts have routinely found no others may be added.  A felony conviction is not a bar to the presidency.

Nor would a prison sentence stop Trump from becoming the duly elected president.   I emphasize those words because if he wins the election, if he is duly elected, Trump will have all the powers of the presidency:  to seek his own release to carry out his presidential duties, possibly to pardon himself and many others (think January 6), and to appoint an Attorney General to dismiss any remaining federal charges.  (That’s just the Day One agenda.)

(At that point, the Georgia state case becomes irrelevant.  No state court can remove the duly elected president from the presidency.)

There is a second legal avenue Trump opponents are taking, looking to the courts to keep Trump off the ballot under the 14^th Amendment.  Section 3, the “disqualification clause,” says that no person shall hold office if they have “previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States” and “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the Constitution.”

A Denver District Court judge recently found that Trump engaged in insurrection.  The court’s findings of fact are thorough, detailed, damning, (and a pleasure to read).  On the legal question, though, the court sidestepped a hard decision by ruling that the president was not an “officer of the United States.”  Commonsense says “nope.”

Clearly, SCOTUS must quickly decide the question:  Is candidate Trump, who engaged in insurrection, disqualified from holding federal office under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution?

Our current Supreme Court, with its three Trump appointees, its 6-3 conservative majority, its cavalier attitude toward facts and precedent, and its unique theory of how to read to Constitution could possibly maybe perhaps find that Trump is ineligible to hold office.  Or not.

We cannot count on the courts to prevent a second Trump presidency.  A felony conviction is not a bar.  A prison sentence is not a bar.  Constitutional disqualification hangs on the whims of SCOTUS.  (Remember the 2000 election?)

The only sure way to prevent a second Trump presidency is to ensure he is not the duly elected president.  He must be defeated at the ballot box.  

Trump’s defeat in the presidential election is also the only way to ensure that he is punished for his crimes.  He must be defeated at the ballot box.