In the 2005 film, Thank You For Smoking (based on the brilliant Christopher Buckley book of the same title), a young boy innocently asks his lobbyist father to help him write an essay for his class. The essay prompt asks the student to explain, “Why does America have the best government in the world.” To which the lobbyist, Nick Naylor, wryly retorts, “Our endless appeals system.”
It’s funny because it’s not only the kind of dark, cynical response one would expect from a card-carrying member of the dreaded Washington, D.C., Swamp, but it’s also somewhat true. The United States is probably the most litigious country in history. We’ve become such a legalistic society, that we are now allowing partisan prosecutors and unelected judges to determine the outcomes of our national presidential elections more than We, the People.
All the meanwhile, our nation careens toward a constitutional crisis, which eventuates either in the election of an incredibly unpopular candidate whose competence is questionable at best, or we slide into another possible civil war.
Former President Donald J. Trump is running for another term as president in the vicious 2024 Presidential Election Cycle. At the same time, Trump has been inundated with four major indictments, for a combined 91 charges.
Trump’s indictments and pending trials—in the midst of that contentious election cycle, no less—are historic in themselves.
Joe Biden’s Abuse of Power
Trump and his allies accuse President Joe Biden, Trump’s rival in the 2024 General Election should he win the GOP nomination, of weaponizing the Department of Justice (DOJ) and America’s legal system against the former president for political purposes. Biden, meanwhile, insists that he is not involved in the trials, despite being the man that the DOJ nominally reports to.
Of course, it’s hard to take Biden at his word, when one looks at the way that Trump’s various court dates have been scheduled.
For example, March 4, 2024, is exactly one day before Super Tuesday. On that day, former President Trump is set to be in court for the federal grand jury investigation into accusations that Trump attempted to incite an insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Super Tuesday is the day in which many key states vote at the same time for their preferred Republican presidential candidate. Much on-the-ground campaigning occurs the day before voting begins. Trump will be required to be in the Washington, D.C. courtroom for the trial date the day before voting begins, taking him out of contention for a large chunk of critical time right before people go to the polls in those key battleground states.
The date was chosen for a reason. It was certainly not a coincidence, especially when one factors in the other legal issues that Trump is facing and the key dates that have thus far been announced in those ongoing trials.
The day after the first Republican Party debate (which Trump did not attend), the former president was made to turn himself into the Fulton County, Georgia, jailhouse for the Georgia state grand jury investigation into allegations that Trump attempted to unduly influence the outcome of the Georgia election in 2020.
Donald Trump: Zombie Cases and Double-Standards
Meanwhile, Trump is enduring a civil case in New York. He is being sued by the journalist E. Jean Carroll for defamation. That trial date is set for January 15, 2024, the exact day that Iowa’s voters go to the polls to pick their preferred Republican candidate.
In March 2024, two days after the Louisiana Republican Primary and a few days before the Wisconsin, Rhode Island, and Delaware GOP Primaries, Trump has another trial date set for the ongoing Manhattan district attorney case against Trump for purported illegal hush money payments the former president made to the adult film star, Stormy Daniels, in 2016.
Most legal experts, even those who support the Manhattan DA’s move against Trump, have taken to calling that case a “Zombie Case.” That’s because it floated around aimlessly in the New York justice system for years, when it should have been quashed. Many believe that the only reason it wasn’t squelched when it ordinarily would have been was because Trump was the defendant in that case, and New York Democrats wanted to stick it to the former president.
May 2024 sees Trump in a Florida courthouse to attend the next trial date for the federal grand jury investigation into allegations that Trump mishandled classified documents. Aside from the Georgia state case against Trump, it is believed that the classified documents case—which carries upwards of 33 years prison time, should Trump be found guilty—is the most serious threat to Trump.
That May 20 trial date next year is smack dab in the middle of a series of GOP primaries.
By the way, many legal analysts argue that if Donald Trump is found guilty in either the federal case involving charges that Trump incited an insurrection on January 6 or in the Georgia state case purporting that Trump attempted to unduly influence the outcome of the 2020 Election vote count in Georgia, it is possible that he would be constitutionally disqualified from holding—let alone running for—office.
Whatever one’s opinion on Trump’s guilt or innocence, there is little doubt that politics is playing a key role in the choice of trial dates for each of the Donald Trump cases.
Of course, Trump is not innocent in all these matters. At various points, his words and actions have given his rivals all the ammunition they needed to initiate these investigations into Trump. Yet, there can be little doubt that these are politically motivated.
The possibility, for example, that a former president in his late seventies, who is running for reelection, could face 33 years in prison for improperly storing classified documents is absurd.
Especially when Trump’s rival, Joe Biden, is accused of having violated the same law—only for several decades, as opposed to the few years that Trump is accused of having done so.
A Banana Republic—If Biden Can Keep It
Biden is not under the legal pressure cooker that Donald Trump is, though. What’s more, it’s hard to deny the corruption of our justice system, when Joe Biden’s wayward son, Hunter, was likely protected by DOJ prosecutors for years, according to two senior IRS whistleblowers. In fact, the DOJ attempted to grant the First Son an incredible sweetheart plea deal in a major tax evasion case that they’d never have given any other American accused of similar crimes.
That plea deal was offered by the DOJ after Hunter Biden’s defense attorneys hinted that they’d subpoena President Biden as a character witness for Hunter Biden, if the case went to trial. The only reason that Hunter was not given the plea deal was because the presiding judge took umbrage with the leniency of the deal.
That’s the same DOJ that is doggedly pursuing Trump for the January 6 allegations and the mishandled classified documents case. They are mercilessly pressing Trump and timing their trial dates for key points in the 2024 Presidential Election while shielding President Biden and his allegedly corrupt son from the same prosecutorial ire they’re subjecting Trump to.
If that’s not a sign of the politicization—and weaponization—of the justice system in this country, I don’t know what is.
Pray for America, because we increasingly appear as though we’re nothing more than a giant banana republic.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
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