Criminal prosecutions are an enormous distraction to any innocent victim, and the indictment of Donald Trump is no exception. It shifts his time and focus away from devoting all of his energy to his reelection campaign. Infringing on Trump’s free speech rights to campaign violates the rights of all Americans to hear everything that this candidate has to say. As Democrat-appointed Justice Thurgood Marshall observed, “The activity of speakers becoming listeners and listeners becoming speakers in the vital interchange of thought is the means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth.” Marshall’s words are falling deaf on the ears of leftist DA Alvin Bragg.
Federal courts have the full power to shut down interference with presidential campaigns by state officials and state courts. No arrest warrant issued by a state official against a leading presidential candidate should be enforceable during the campaign, particularly when an arrest is not needed to protect the safety of anyone.
Chief Justice Roberts joined three liberal Justices on the High Court to emphasize the power of federal courts to halt state court proceedings that impinge on constitutional rights. When someone is “harassed with a multiplicity of suits or litigation generally in an endeavor to enforce penalties” that would have an unconstitutional effect, then Roberts said it should be stopped.
That was less than two years ago when Roberts and the liberal Justices so stated, on an emergency appeal of an abortion-related law in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson (2021). Roberts wrote, “Under these circumstances, where the mere commencement of a suit, and in fact just the threat of it, is the actionable injury to another, the principles … authorize relief against the court officials who play an essential role in that scheme.” I can’t help but wonder if Roberts would deal so graciously if the injured party were Donald Trump.
Let’s deal with the facts here. The indictment of former president Donald Trump years after the alleged campaign violation on the eve of his reelection bid is obviously politically motivated. Anyone who says otherwise has an agenda. The question is what the American people should do about these politically motivated indictments. For the sake of our elections, they must be thrown out.
