Trump Derangement Syndrome

Lawfare is bad; lawfare without law is worse. Today, a small blow was struck against lawless criminal charges, and in favor of the idea that people can be prosecuted only for violating laws that have been written down somewhere.

Former President Donald Trump has had three charges in his Georgia election case thrown out by the judge considering whether to disqualify Fani Willis.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee wrote Wednesday in an order that six of the charges in the indictment must be quashed, including three against Trump.

But the order leave intact many other charges in the indictment and the judge wrote that prosecutors could seek a new indictment on the charges he dismissed.

h/t DS

Judge Scott McAfee’s decision on whether to disqualify the district attorney of Georgia’s Fulton County, Fani Willis, from the racketeering case she charged against President Trump and 18 others will likely turn on the legal standard Ms. Willis is forced to meet.

If Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis were prosecuting citizen Fani Willis and her former boyfriend Nathan Wade for perjury, conspiracy and obstruction of justice, she would have an extremely strong case. The evidence of perjury is overwhelming; many individuals have been convicted on far less evidence.

Recall that Willis and Wade testified under oath to the material fact that Willis did not hire Wade as special prosecutor while they were having a romantic relationship. They both testified that the romantic relationship began after the hiring decision was made. If that was a deliberate lie, it satisfies all the elements of perjury.

Were they deliberately deceiving their audiences, or themselves?

Much of what passes today for news analysis is anything but.

Let’s take a recent example: the legal discourse surrounding Colorado’s efforts to remove former President Donald Trump from the state’s ballot.

Their “rage” is an existential “threat to American democracy.”

As this critical 2024 presidential election draws closer, the panicked left finds themselves without a candidate even remotely capable of defeating Donald Trump – an inexorable, MAGA juggernaut that the Democrat Party cannot seem to stop no matter how many trumped-up (pun intended) lawsuits and investigations they throw in his path to a second Presidency.

The top of the Wednesday New York Times offers quite a contrast in headlines: a whiny piece on how Donald Trump may be gaining because of America’s “collective amnesia,” next to a puff piece “White House Memo” on “Campaign Shifts Strategy to Let Biden Be Himself.” As if he isn’t authentically fumbling and bumbling?

All together now: If you’re going to take a shot at a president, you better make sure your own house is in order first. Some ways to do that might include not engaging in disqualifying conflicts of interest by taking up with your married hired help while also benefiting materially from the arrangement. And certainly, you’d want to avoid perjuring yourself.

Arthur Engoron, the New York Supreme Court judge in the real estate case brought against Donald Trump by the state attorney general, has fined Trump and members of his family $464 million. This raises the question of whether the fine – which does not reflect damages actually done – is “excessive” under the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution, which reads as follows: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

There are brand new concerns about the Biden administration’s interference in the 2024 presidential election. The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office admitted during a hearing last month that they communicated with the Biden White House as it built its case to prosecute Donald Trump. Now, sources have since come forward to reveal that the Biden administration allegedly placed a Democrat operative into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’s office with the specific goal of targeting former President Donald Trump.

h/t Mauser

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has maintained that her romantic relationship with prosecutor Nathan Wade began after she appointed him as the special prosecutor in the case against Trump in November 2021. But, earlier this month, Robin Yeartie, a former “good friend” and employee of Willis, testified under oath that their relationship began in 2019. Both Willis and Wade testified to the contrary, but last week, new court filings by Donald Trump’s attorneys revealed cellphone data contradicted their testimony The data showed that Wade made at least 35 visits to Willis’s neighborhood before she hired him, with several of those visits appearing to be overnight stays.