(Editor's Note: The following article has been authored by a non-lawyer, and does not constitute a legal opinion; nor does it consitute an endorsement for any candidate, or political party, by Newsmax)
Apart from — and in addition to — torching America’s foundational fair justice and democratic electoral systems, the transparently political prosecutorial persecutions of Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have inflamed to an inferno, one destined to backfire on the perpetrating arsonists.
The obvious agenda has been to keep Trump’s unabashedly unfettered persona in the compliant media forefront to distract and deflect public attention away from a previously unthinkable siege of domestic and foreign Democratic Party-Socialist policy disasters.
Some observers on both sides of the aisle theorize that the strategic objective is even more stealthy… namely to throw red meat to rally Trump’s base of supporters to provoke politically damaging reactions and/or actually assure he becomes a badly damaged GOP primary pick over a stronger, less controversial, opponent.
Imagine a successful and charismatic Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., for example.
Nevertheless, whatever their intent, whether to render Trump ineligible to run again, or conversely to weaken him as their preferred most likely GOP opponent, Democrats are bound to fail either way.
First, don’t imagine for a moment that the current sham Manhattan court case which George Washington law professor Jonathan Turley describes as a "legal slurpee" — satisfying for liberals but there’s nothing there — will possibly lead to a disqualifying felony conviction.
Despite all the brouhaha regarding 34 "felony charges" in Bragg’s grand jury indictment, there are exactly zero that would even warrant legitimate misdemeanor beefs in part due to long-expired statutes of limitations.
As noted by Wall Street Journal editors, "Mr. Braggs’s case looks even weaker than expected," who "has padded the indictment in this way to include nearly three dozen counts, but they describe the same conduct."
Then to bump the misdemeanor charges up to one or more felonies, according to New York law the district attorney would need to show that they were intended to conceal another crime.
In this case, that would presumably be a campaign finance contribution by the Trump Organization in the form of hush money to cover up an alleged 2006 affair (a decade before he was elected president) with porn actress "Stormy Daniels."
That requisite "crime" isn’t stated in the indictment.
But what about the notion that following failed impeachment shams one and two, Jan. 6 Capitol riot kangaroo court hearings, and an armed morning raid on his private Mar-a-Lago residence including Melania’s wardrobe closet seeking nuclear bomb secrets, more assaults such as this latest one on the former president would finally drive his demise?
Well, at least so far as 2024 GOP primaries are concerned, it appears that quite the opposite is occurring.
According to Betfair, for example, bookmakers indicate that the New York indictment has improved – not hurt - Donald Trump’s chances of returning to the White House, although Joe Biden has been their top bet.
Betfair's new odds on Trump winning the Republican nomination have gone from 5/6 to 4/5, meaning it considers a Trump win more likely, while chances of Ron DeSantis receiving the nomination have gone from 2 to 1 to now being 5 to 2; meaning it believes the Florida governor is less likely than before to win.
Other evidence of Trump ascendency comes in the form of a flood of recent campaign contributions — more than $10 million since the indictment, with about 25% of those donations from first-time donors.
According to a recent Fox News national survey, Donald Trump has doubled his primary popularity lead over a presumed competitor Gov. DeSantis by 30 points since February (54%-24%), leaving all other potential GOP contenders in the dust.
To be clear, this writer was wishing for an energetic field of GOP primary debaters focused on policy issues and priorities vital to the future of our country rather than a reactive "circling of wagons" in defense of a maligned target of Democrat vilification.
As for winning the primary, then losing the Oval Office, what are the odds on that?
After all, unless dismissed, the New York case against Trump — along with others in progress — will be kept alive throughout the election period.
The next court hearing is tentatively scheduled for December, only a month or two before the Iowa caucus is supposed to take place.
Let’s remember that the Democrats have very good reasons to perpetuate Trump distractions away from releases of legal logjams of ugly Biden family foreign influencing peddling activities involving "the big guy," by aggressive House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
Meanwhile, although it’s his turn to be on the defensive, it appears that Democrats are stuck with Joe as their candidate.
Having conspicuously avoided any announcement regarding plans not to seek a second term, President Biden has essentially frozen out any alternative candidates from jumping into the vacancy in time to organize staff and raise as much as $1 billion in campaign coffers required for success.
And if Biden was soon to bow out, that leaves Democrats with Vice President Kamala Harris as the presumptively entitled whose dismal performance ratings are even worse than his.
And only about a quartes of all Democrats want him to run again.
Slurpee lawsuits against Trump aren’t likely to help Biden’s odds, but they will increasingly become recognized by voters as the toxic Kool Aid that is poisoning America.
(A related article may be found here.)
Larry Bell is an endowed professor of space architecture at the University of Houston where he founded the Sasakawa International Center for Space Architecture and the graduate space architecture program. His latest of 12 books is "Architectures Beyond Boxes and Boundaries: My Life By Design" (2022). Read Larry Bell's Reports — More Here.
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