Trump and the Lawfare Implosion of 2024

Will his prosecution end up putting him back in the White House?

Wall Street Journal

By Kimberley A. Strassel

What’s that old saying about the “best-laid plans”? Democrats banked that a massive lawfare campaign against Donald Trump would strengthen their hold on the White House. As that legal assault founders, they’re left holding the bag known as Joe Biden.

In Florida on Tuesday, Judge Aileen Cannon postponed indefinitely the start of special counsel Jack Smith’s classified-documents trial. The judge noted the original date, May 20, is impossible given the messy stack of pretrial motions on her desk. The prosecution is fuming, while the press insinuates—or baldly asserts—that the judge is biased for Mr. Trump, incompetent or both. But it is Mr. Smith and his press gaggle who are living in legal unreality, attempting to rush the process to accommodate a political timeline.

What did they expect? Mr. Smith waited until 2023 to file legally novel charges involving classified documents, a former president, and a complex set of statutes governing presidential records. The pretrial disputes—some sealed for national-security reasons—involve weighty questions about rules governing the admission of classified documents in criminal trials, discovery, scope and even whether Mr. Smith’s appointment as special counsel was lawful. Judge Cannon notes the court has a “duty to fully and fairly consider” all of these, which she believes will take until at least July. This could push any trial beyond the election.

Mr. Smith’s indictments in the District of Columbia, alleging that Mr. Trump plotted to overturn the 2020 election, have separately gone to the Supreme Court, where the justices are determining whether and when a former president is immune from criminal prosecution for acts while in office. A decision on the legal question is expected in June, whereupon the case will likely return to the lower courts to apply it to the facts. That may also mean no trial before the election.

A Georgia appeals court this week decided it would review whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue leading her racketeering case against Mr. Trump in light of the conflict presented by her romantic relationship with the former special prosecutor. The trial judge is unlikely to proceed while this major issue is pending, and the appeals process could take up to six months.

Which leaves the lawfare crowd’s last, best hope in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s muddled charges on that Trump 2016 “hush money” deal with adult-film star Stormy Daniels. That case was a mess well before Judge Juan Merchan allowed Ms. Daniels to provide the jury Kama-Sutra-worthy descriptions of her claimed sexual tryst with Mr. Trump, during which she intimated several times that the encounter was nonconsensual.

Mr. Trump is charged with falsifying records, not sexual assault, and even the judge acknowledged the jury heard things that “would have been better left unsaid.” He tried to blame the defense for not objecting enough during her testimony, but it’s the judge’s job to keep witnesses on task. Judge Merchan refused a Trump request for a mistrial, but his openness to issuing a “limiting instruction” to the jury—essentially an order to unhear prejudicial testimony—is an acknowledgment that things went off the rails. If Mr. Trump is convicted, it’s also a strong Trump argument for reversal on appeal.

Little, in short, is going as planned. The lawfare strategy from the start: pile on Mr. Trump in a way that ensured Republicans would rally for his nomination, then use legal proceedings to crush his ability to campaign, drain his resources, and make him too toxic (or isolated in prison) to win a general election. He won the nomination, but the effort against him is flailing, courtesy of an echo chamber of anti-Trump prosecutors and journalists who continue to indulge the fantasy that every court, judge, jury and timeline exists to dance to their partisan fervor.

These own goals are striking. Mr. Smith wouldn’t be facing delays if he’d acknowledged up front the important constitutional question of presidential immunity, or if he’d sought an indictment for obstruction of justice and forgone charging Mr. Trump with improperly handling classified documents, which gets into legally complicated territory. The federal charges might carry more weight with the public had Mr. Bragg refrained from bringing a flimsy case that makes the whole effort look wildly partisan. And Ms. Willis’s romantic escapades have turned her legal overreach into a reality-TV joke.

Democrats faced a critical choice last year: Try to win an election by confronting the real problem of a weak and old president presiding over unpopular far-left policies, or try to rig an outcome by embracing a lawfare stratagem. They chose the latter. Perhaps a court will still convict Mr. Trump of something, although that could play either way with the electorate. Lawfare as politics is a very risky business.

His whole life, Steve had been waiting for a reason. The fight with Byers hadn’t been enough nor had the loss of Tommy and Carol. Nancy’s cheating and the humiliation he felt almost did it but not quite. The first run in with the Upside Down, the second, the beating from hell, not getting into college, disappointing his parents, the Russians, losing Hopper, none of it was enough.

But losing Max and Eddie was. It felt like Steve had lost his tether. His new friend, his potential for more, was gone. Max, the random girl that had grown to be the snarky little sister he’d always needed, was gone. After that, his ever-there backup plan started feeling a little bit less like a backup. As soon as the Buckley parents decided to move away with a reluctant Robin in tow, Steve was done.

He slunk away from everyone, hiding from their gazes and escaping in their grief. He didn’t need their scrutiny or worse, their fake concern. He didn’t have any affairs to put in order, no one would notice anything amiss anyways. Steve always existed in the background, until he didn’t. He slipped under the water of his pool one night and for once, he didn’t feel turmoil. Even as his lungs ran out of air and every cell in his body screamed for air, Steve only felt calm. And soon, he felt nothing at all.

made a pool lot for mt. komo because it's almost summer in ma game!!

Time for a lil' house tour before we properly begin! This lot was originally built by babygoff on the gallery, I just decorated it a little more to suit Riley's.... lifestyle.

Heard it's your birthday!!!! Happy birthday and thank you so much for all the lovely art you share, hope you get to do something fun to celebrate :)

thank you so much!! I'm planning on having a chill day bc I did all my partying yesterday dhfjfdfd,, . time to prepare for the Storm (beginning college again on monday. this cycle is endless )

Dirty Harry telling Gul Dukat what happened to the last Cardassian who caused trouble in his jurisdiction.

aw zoinks I KNEW 5.3 was gonna be mean to ME

BLUES: SONGS OF THE DAY

THE ARTIST IS: BEN POOLE

THE SONG IS: "DIRTY LAUNDRY"

The Dead Pool

Poolside

I haven't posted about Avatar in a *hot* minute, but, I have been infected with the hyperfixation again and the incessant urge to just hit Spider with the projection/trauma stick is driving me feral.

I just want to give him a shit ton of issues man. I want to make my sweet baby boy baby miserable. I love him so I have to make his life as hard as possible.

like making him absolutely unwell and giving him a list of chronic illness/disabilities (on top of the ones he already has from being human on Pandora) wouldn't fix me, but it'd do something that'd make my brain feel a little less implode-y 🤷🏻

Edit: small disclaimer for anyone who doesn't know me, I am disabled, hence why I said projection, I just feel like I should mention that, or the tone of this post feels a little uncomfy

02.24.24 Dirty Projectors played a low-key show at Union Pool in Brooklyn as a warm-up for their big orchestral show in Los Angeles.

Happy birthday Clint!

sometimes i wonder who could win in a fair fight, before. before the prison and before dream started burning the candle at both ends "experimenting" w vik and lazer, before sapnap secretly hasnt trained in weeks bc he cant bear to get himself to train when he knows full well that the next time he'll be in a fight he'll have his brother at the end of his sword.

when they were friends still, when they knew each other better than themselves. when they never really fought with heart in it, with real intent to hurt, pulling their swords back before someone could really get hurt. if back then, they'd fought fairly, a match purely skill, would dream have won, two years older and so much smarter, the one who taught sapnap to fight in the first place and still trains more, strokes sharp and vicious on the training dummy in a way sapnap cant really capture when he tries it secretly, alone when he knows dream wont see it. or would sapnap be better if they fought, purely, to the death to victory, with no inhibitions on the man boy at the end of his sword, without the careful way he'd pull back his blade to keep from hurting his best friend that came almost like instinct to him, no matter how hard he tries to pull it back to win for once when they had friendly spars. he's always been quicker than dream, stronger, even if he wasnt quite as adept, as perfectly honed, practiced in technique that sapnap really never had the patience for.

or would they be perfectly matched. would sapnaps strength, his natural quickness, exactly match dreams training, his strategy, every technique hes spent years perfecting to stay on top as sapnap grew, got stronger and better just behind him. would they stalemate, blades clashing late into the night. until one collapsed, unable to keep going, the victor heaving, exhausted, and alone.