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The Thrill is Gone: Will the Prosectorial Campaigns Collapse with the Political Campaigns Against Trump?
Jonathan Turley ^ | November 6, 2024 | Jonathan Turley

Posted on 11/07/2024 4:25:21 AM PST by george76

Below is my column in the New York Post on the developments in the pending Trump cases. I previously wrote that, if Trump prevailed in this election, it was likely that Special Counsel Jack Smith would “not see a jury in either of his cases.” This morning, Smith is reportedly in discussions on the possible dropping of his two federal cases against the president-elect. The prosecutorial campaigns appear to be collapsing with the political campaigns against Trump.

Here is the column:

After years of thrill-kill prosecutions, the thrill is gone for lawfare warriors.

Election Day’s greatest losers may be special counsel Jack Smith, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Donald Trump’s victory was the largest jury verdict that some of us anticipated for years of unrelenting weaponization of the legal system.

Smith’s prosecutions ended with the 270th Electoral College vote secured around 2 a.m. Wednesday. His unrelenting efforts to convict Trump and then, when prevented from holding a trial, to release damaging material before the election have collapsed with the blue wall in the Midwest.

Trump has said he plans to fire Smith on Day 1. That means the end of both the January 6 and the classified documents cases.

That leaves James and Bragg as residue of long-forgotten lawfare battles, but even there Trump’s prospects look good.

James was able to secure a fellow lawfare warrior in Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed a grotesque $455 million in fines and interest.

That ruling is pending an appeal that is expected to be a partial or even total victory for Trump.

Unlike Engoron, the appellate judges expressed great skepticism in September over the size of the penalty and even the use of this law.

Trump faced half a billion dollars in penalty in a case where no one lost a dime, and the alleged victim banks wanted more business with Trump and his company.

Separately, there is a hearing scheduled in front of Judge Juan Merchan for Nov. 11 on the “hush money” case involving Stormy Daniels, and a possible sentencing on Nov. 26.

If Merchan seeks to jail Trump, it is unlikely to be carried out, as Trump appeals the case and the many alleged errors committed by the judge.

Merchan made an utter mess of a case that should never have been filed, let alone tried. Even commentators like CNN’s senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, have denounced the case as selective prosecution and unfounded.

The case should result in a conditional discharge with no jail time if Merchan can resist the temptation to unjustly punish Trump, a level of restraint that has largely proven difficult for him in the case.

Merchan created layers of appealable errors in the case. Putting those alleged errors aside, any sentencing to jail would create its own constitutional conflict with Trump’s performance of his federal duties.

The question is whether the election will bring a moment of sobriety for New Yorkers who have spent years in a full rage-driven celebration of lawfare.

While Trump did not prevail in New York, he came closer than any Republican in decades.

After this steady diet of politicized prosecutions in New York, Trump secured 44.3% of the vote, while Harris received 55.7%. In 2020, the margin was 23 points.

It is doubtful that the election will completely kill the appetite for lawfare in New York. As I wrote in my recent book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” “rage is liberating, even addictive. It allows us to say and do things that we would ordinarily avoid, even denounce in others.”

What people do not want to admit that is that they like the rage.

Rage addicts will continue to push James and Bragg to continue these unhinged campaigns. It is not prosecutorial — it is recreational.

We can only hope that James and Bragg feel a twinge of humility when their cases fall apart along with the Kamala Harris campaign.

And Merchan has the opportunity to use this brief sobering moment and issue a conditional discharge without home or actual confinement.

He can take judicial notice of Trump’s election as our next president and end this circus in Manhattan.

Instead of listening to the braying mob, he can act as a judge and tell New Yorkers, in the immortal words of B.B. King:

“The thrill is gone It’s gone away for good All the thrill is gone Baby, it’s gone away for good

… I’m free from your spell And now that it’s all over All that I can do is wish you well.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: lawfare
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1 posted on 11/07/2024 4:25:21 AM PST by george76
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To: george76

I think it’s the end of the lawfare. It just makes the dems look shady and vindictive. They got such a stinging ass-beating during the election they’ve learned for now. Sure, there will be the daily assassination attempts from the antifa trannies but the dems will slink into the shadows and go to plan B and C and D. This never ends. Satan doesn’t need sleep


2 posted on 11/07/2024 4:35:00 AM PST by Strict9
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To: george76

Deep State will retrench.

Until Deep State is delenda est.


3 posted on 11/07/2024 4:36:18 AM PST by mewzilla (Never give up; never surrender!)
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To: george76
After this steady diet of politicized prosecutions in New York, Trump secured 44.3% of the vote, while Harris received 55.7%. In 2020, the margin was 23 points.

Many of those in 2020 were probably fraudulent mail-in ballots anyway.

4 posted on 11/07/2024 4:36:18 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: george76
What shocked me is how easily the federal government was able to round up and jail every person that they branded political enemies.

The decades of 'government do something' got us this huge federal government with a thick dossier on each of us Americans.

5 posted on 11/07/2024 4:36:27 AM PST by jdt1138 (Where ever you go, there you are.)
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To: george76

Prosectorial?

What does this have to do with preparing a dissection?

/s (I know, but a mispelling in the HEADLINE? It’s so triggering.)


6 posted on 11/07/2024 4:37:33 AM PST by larrytown (A Cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do. Then they graduate...)
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To: A_perfect_lady

The depth and breadth of the win suggests the fraud of the 2020 election.


7 posted on 11/07/2024 4:43:22 AM PST by yldstrk
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To: george76
All these imaginary crimes were created to keep Trump from running. They'll all go in the circular file.

And Carroll...I hope he goes after her...and her lying friends.

8 posted on 11/07/2024 4:43:38 AM PST by Sacajaweau
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To: jdt1138

That includes P’nut and Fred!


9 posted on 11/07/2024 4:45:40 AM PST by 2nd Amendment
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To: george76

If those involved in these sham prosecution of President just find a way out of the mess they created they will be forgotten in time.

However if they insist on continuing the prosecution of President Trump on these sham charges they will be remembered in history books forever for their part in interfering with our election using our laws as a political weapon.


10 posted on 11/07/2024 4:49:42 AM PST by CIB-173RDABN (My opinions are the rusult of 80 years of life, you may not like them but who cares.)
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To: yldstrk
That's for sure. I mean:

Obama 2008 - 69,498,516
Obama 2012 - 65,915,795
Clinton 2016 - 65,853,514
Biden 2020 - 81,283,501
Harris 2024 -67,957,895

The question isn't where did that extra 15 million voters go. The question is where did they come from in the first place?

11 posted on 11/07/2024 4:53:28 AM PST by A_perfect_lady (The greatest wealth is to live content with little. -Plato)
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To: george76

Who saw that idiot Leticia James yesterday?

TRUMP’S DOJ should have a close look at that moron


12 posted on 11/07/2024 4:57:28 AM PST by V_TWIN (America...so great even the people that hate it refuse to leave!)
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To: jdt1138

jdt1138 wrote:
What shocked me is how easily the federal government was able to round up and jail every person that they branded political enemies.
The decades of ‘government do something’ got us this huge federal government with a thick dossier on each of us Americans.

_________________

Exactly .

They should eliminate all these government agencies and laws back to 1900 before the income tax in 1913.

Milei in Argentina is doing the right thing


13 posted on 11/07/2024 5:00:13 AM PST by rurgan (They r cooking the death stats about this covid-19 common cold to enslave us)
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To: A_perfect_lady

That’s for sure. I mean:
Obama 2008 - 69,498,516
Obama 2012 - 65,915,795
Clinton 2016 - 65,853,514
Biden 2020 - 81,283,501
Harris 2024 -67,957,895

The question isn’t where did that extra 15 million voters go. The question is where did they come from in the first place?
*******
Exactly. Stinking, rotten cheaters. And we all know it.


14 posted on 11/07/2024 5:00:59 AM PST by yldstrk
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To: CIB-173RDABN

The truth will sell millions of books and the Evil Doers know it.


15 posted on 11/07/2024 5:01:15 AM PST by cnsmom
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To: 2nd Amendment

That includes P’nut and Fred!
********
Committed deliberately to terrify people.


16 posted on 11/07/2024 5:01:59 AM PST by yldstrk
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To: V_TWIN

Who saw that idiot Leticia James yesterday?

TRUMP’S DOJ should have a close look at that moron
***********
James and Fani are in the process of self destructing.


17 posted on 11/07/2024 5:03:10 AM PST by yldstrk
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To: mewzilla

Correct


18 posted on 11/07/2024 5:07:27 AM PST by george76 (Ward Churchill : Fake Indian, Fake Scholarship, and Fake Art)
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To: V_TWIN

Can anyone check on the status of the Geogia disciplinary board that is considering disbarring Big Fani?


19 posted on 11/07/2024 5:21:54 AM PST by armourenthusiast (I capitalize everything related to South)
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To: Strict9

Who is going to pay for these law suits now that Trump is back in office?


20 posted on 11/07/2024 5:23:51 AM PST by nikos1121
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