As Donald Trump faces multiple charges in court, some civil and some criminal, he continues to decry that he is being persecuted by a system that has been manipulated against him for political reasons, and he also claims that this represents interference with his attempts to get re-elected. This is a typical stance by the former president where he portrays himself as a victim persecuted by a biased and/or unjust system. We have seen it with his claims of “fake news” that has allegedly spread lies about him, his accusations in 2016 and again 2020 that the election process is rigged, his attacks on the system of checks and balances and separation of powers that frustrated his attempts to rule by decree while in the Oval Office, and it is on full display now with his claims that the many charges he faces are unjust and heavily biased.
This all plays into Trump’s ongoing strategy to instill doubts in the Democratic process and the rule of law so that he can act as he pleases while facing little to no consequences for his actions. And one of his recent tantrums was rewarded with a reduced bond requirement in the fraud case against him and his company. But the fact is that the system is in no way biased against Trump and the cases against him are not the result of actions by the Joe Biden or the Democratic Party. Trump has been accused of illegal actions, and in most instances the proof against him is quite clear, so he will have his day in court as with anybody in this country faced with similar allegations.
Politico has put together an in depth look at the criminal cases against Trump, and following is a quick overview of those:
Federal Election Interference: In the two months between Election Day in 2020 and Jan. 6, 2021, Trump mounted a wide-ranging campaign to subvert Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. Trump and his advisers spread false information about voter fraud, urged Republican state officials to undermine the results in states that Biden won, assembled false slates of electors and pressured Mike Pence, the vice president, to unilaterally toss out the legitimate results. The effort culminated on Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the peaceful transfer of power.
Georgia Election Interference: Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election were perhaps most aggressive in the state of Georgia. Multiple recounts confirmed that Joe Biden narrowly prevailed in the race for the state’s 16 electoral votes. But Trump and his allies spread lies about voter fraud, urged Georgia officials and state lawmakers to reverse Biden’s win and plotted to send fake electors to Washington. On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump called Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, and urged him to “find” 11,780 votes — the number needed to overcome Biden’s victory.
Classified Documents: Federal prosecutors, led by special counsel Jack Smith, have accused Trump of taking highly sensitive national security documents when he left the White House in January 2021. He stashed those documents haphazardly throughout his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstructed the government’s repeated attempts to retrieve them, prosecutors allege. On at least two occasions, Trump showed classified documents to individuals who were not authorized to view them, prosecutors say.
It should be noted that Joe Biden was also found to have retained classified documents from the time he was in office as Vice President, and Trump claims that Biden should be prosecuted for that. But an investigation determined that no additional legal action was required because Biden cooperated and turned over the documents. And it was his people that revealed the existence of the documents in the first place.
Hush Money: Trump is accused of falsifying business records in connection with a payoff to Stormy Daniels, a porn star who claimed she had a sexual encounter with him. By buying Daniels’ silence, the payoff avoided a possible sex scandal in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign. Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney and “fixer” at the time, paid $130,000 to Daniels in October 2016, according to prosecutors. Then, while in the White House, Trump reimbursed Cohen in a series of installment payments processed by Trump’s company.
In addition to the criminal cases above, Trump and his company have been found guilty of fraud in the state of New York. The judge in the case found they engaged in a years-long scheme to defraud financial institutions they worked with by inflating his wealth and the value of his assets when applying for loans then in turn deflating the value when reporting for tax purposes. He was ordered to pay a penalty of $355 million and was barred from doing business in the state for multiple years.
Trump denies any wrongdoing in any of these cases, though he has already been found guilty of fraud in the New York case. For the others, he will get his day in court, though he and his lawyers have done everything they can to delay the trials and obscure the facts.
While in office, Trump claimed that he was the “law and order” president. But it has become quite clear that he does not believe the law applies to him (as evidenced by his immunity claims) and that he prefers to use the law as a cudgel to attack any opposition, including the very system of justice he claims to support. He plays the part of the victim and denounces any actions against him while trying to draw sympathy and claim that the system is biased against him. And he has learned how to manipulate that system in order to avoid or delay consequences.
But the fact is that Trump faces the many charges because of his own actions, not because of persecution from his opponents. (Though it is important to note that Trump has promised to retaliate against those he believes have wronged if he returns to power, basically carrying out the very persecution he claims to be a victim of.) He continues to try and sway the public to his side with his cries of mistreatment, but we should place our faith in the court system and the rule of law. Trump will get his chance to make his case in court, and if he can prove that his innocence he will not face jail time. But there are multiple counts against him right now, many of which are very serious, and he should not be allowed to escape justice simply because he claims (falsely) that he is the victim of injustice.