Legal Does Not Mean Right
Tomorrow, President Trump will surrender to federal authorities and be arraigned on more than three dozen counts concerning confidential documents and impeding an investigation.
Many of the president’s defenders note that nothing he is accused of doing is markedly different from what others—from Barack Obama, to Hillary Clinton, to Joe Biden—have done in the past. They say he is being targeted for political reasons and being treated differently.
All of which may well be true…but it won’t have a thing to do with the criminal case now pending in Florida, one which could see him spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted—the penalties are that severe, on even a single count.
It won’t have anything to do with the criminal case because claiming others did similar bad things is not a defense to accusations of violating the law. No, it is not fair…and yes, it smacks of “banana republic” stuff, jailing your political enemies when election year rolls around.
But we have to separate any violations of law from the motives of prosecutors.
Let’s say a police officer is running radar in an area, and you are driving a car with out of state license plates. Three cars ahead of you have local plates, and you’re all going the same speed—but you are the only one pulled over. You protest and say others were driving just as fast but did not get pulled over, and you’d be right—but it would not make a bit of difference concerning your speeding ticket.
Same thing here, but the stakes are far higher. Again…no, it is not fair…but when you know you are under a microscope, you have to be careful about giving your opposition anything to use against you.
