Byron York
Why do so many Democrats and their allies in the media desperately want former President Donald Trump to stand trial before Election Day? The answer is simple: Because they think it will help President Joe Biden defeat Trump and win reelection.
So far, the “lawfare” directed at Trump — two federal indictments from a special counsel appointed by the Biden Justice Department, plus two local indictments from elected Democratic prosecutors, plus a financial lawsuit from another elected Democratic prosecutor and a sex-and-defamation lawsuit financed by a Democratic megadonor — has backfired at the polls. It helped boost Trump to a runaway victory in the Republican primaries, and so far, it hasn’t hurt him in general election matchup polls against Biden.
Democrats hope a guilty verdict in a criminal trial — any trial will do — will peel away voters who say they support Trump now but would not support him if he were a convicted felon. We’ll see.
But the lawfare campaign is already having another effect on Trump. It has put the former president under severe financial stress. In two ways. The first is the tens of millions of dollars in legal fees Trump has already spent defending himself against the onslaught of criminal charges and lawsuits. The other is the crippling financial penalty — $454 million — in the lawsuit brought by the elected Democratic attorney general of New York, Letitia James.
It was an unprecedented lawsuit in which James created what former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy called “a fraud case in which there are no fraud victims.” Trump did not have the right to a jury trial, and a hostile judge came up with a devastating financial judgment.
Trump is now scrambling to find an insurer that will post a bond for the money so that Trump can proceed with an appeal of the verdict. If he can’t find an insurer to do that, New York law requires that Trump will either have to come up with the cash himself or sell some of his real estate holdings, just to be able to mount an appeal. And all that is on top of an $83 million award in a separate sex-and-defamation suit, the one financed by the Democratic donor.
No criminal trial has begun, but the swarm of Democratic legal actions has already cost Trump dearly. Of course, that was the idea, or at least part of the idea. And it’s something that Biden himself indirectly acknowledged in a recent speech.
It happened in Washington at the Gridiron Dinner, a fancy white-tie gathering of major media figures and the top politicians they cover. Biden delivered a speech that was part comedy routine and part inspirational talk to his media base.
And this is a joke Biden told, according to news accounts: “Our big plan to cancel student debt doesn’t apply to everyone. Just yesterday, a defeated-looking man came up to me and said, ‘I’m being crushed by debt. I’m completely wiped out.’ And I said, ‘Sorry, Donald, I can’t help you.’”
Ha ha ha. The media audience, of course, laughed. With one joke, Biden acknowledged the work his party’s lawfare warriors have done in the Trump matter. And how could Biden not be grateful? He’s trailing Trump in the polls, facing an electorate that largely believes he is too old for a second term, and is underwater in approval ratings for his handling of most issues.
No doubt Biden’s joke about bankrupting Trump reflects his satisfaction that the lawfare effort is starting to work. But Biden wants more. In February, Politico reported that Biden has “grumbled to aides and advisers that had (Attorney General Merrick) Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded.”
In April 2022, the New York Times reported that Biden “confided to his inner circle” his belief that Trump “should be prosecuted.” The paper added that while Biden “has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor.”
Garland knows the president wants him to get Trump sooner rather than later. Garland’s pick for special counsel, Jack Smith, who first wanted to put Trump on trial in January, is now racing to start a trial by summer. Anything to get the job done by Election Day. Maybe Smith will succeed, and maybe he won’t. But the lawfare campaign is a heavy burden on Trump every day.
Byron York is chief political correspondent for The Washington Examiner, where this commentary previously appeared. Send comments to [email protected].
