Trump Prosecutions
March 19, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan is being denounced worldwide for arresting his chief rival in the upcoming presidential election: Turkish police have arrested Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, in a raid on his home just days before his opposition party was expected to nominate him as its candidate for the next presidential election. Did they search his wife’s underwear drawer? Police also arrested one of his senior aides…. Check. Hours after he
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January 29, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Donald Trump has often not been well served by his lawyers. This may be partly his fault, but the reality is that historically, top law firms wouldn’t have touched Trump with a stick. For the most part, they are loyal members of the establishment, and if a firm had been bold enough to take on Trump as a client, it likely would have faced a rebellion by younger lawyers and
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January 10, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The farcical prosecution of Donald Trump in a Manhattan courtroom came to an anticlimactic end today, as Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to be discharged by the court with no penalty–no jail time, no fine, nothing. This was no surprise, as Merchan had already announced that intention. District Attorney Alvin Bragg disgraced himself by bringing this prosecution. He tried to revive an alleged misdemeanor on which the statute of limitations
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January 3, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Of all the bogus criminal prosecutions and civil lawsuits that the Democrats have brought against Donald Trump, perhaps the most ridiculous is the New York “hush money” case. In that case, corrupt prosecutors and a corrupt judge colluded, using an unprecedented and incoherent legal theory, to transform Trump’s perfectly legal payment to Stormy Daniels into a felony under New York Law. The jury’s conviction, on charges that the prosecution was
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November 7, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Today Mike Davis, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, gave an interview in which he insulted and threatened Letitia James, the Attorney General of New York. When I first saw this, I couldn’t believe it was real: 🚨Trump's lawyer Mike Davis issues dark warning to NY AG Letitia James: "I dare you to try to continue your lawfare against President Trump… listen here, sweetheart, we're not messing around this time and
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November 6, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Special Counsel Jack Smith has brought two criminal prosecutions against Donald Trump, one arising out of his retention of allegedly classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence, and the second out of his actions and inactions during the January 6 protest. The documents case has been dismissed on the ground that Smith was not properly appointed as Special Counsel. Now, DOJ reportedly intends to dismiss those cases immediately: With his resounding
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October 23, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Speaking in New Hampshire yesterday, President Biden — remember him? — addressed the threat posed by the possible reelection of President Trump (video below): “We gotta lock him up.” Biden added that he meant “politically lock him up,” but he obviously meant “lock him up,” literally. Biden’s Department of Justice has undertaken two prosecutions of Trump charging a series of imprisonable offenses. The timing hasn’t worked out as planned, but
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August 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Among other things, Andrew McCarthy is the best analyst of the legal issues in the Democrat lawfare against President Trump. In the classified Mar-a-Lago documents matter, Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the case under the Constitution’s appointments clause. She held that Krazee-Eyez Killa Jack Smith lacks the legal authority he is wielding as Special Counsel in the case. It’s a problem that could be easily solved, but the problem exposes
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July 15, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Following up on Justice Thomas’s concurrence in Trump v. United States, Judge Aileen Cannon has dismissed the classified documents case against President Trump et al. that has been pending before her. Judge Cannon’s 93-page order “based on appointments clause violation” is posted online here. Krazee-Eyez Killa Jack Smith, as I call him — he’s illegal. Attorney General Merrick Garland should not have appointed Smith Special Counsel. Smith’s appointment doesn’t even
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July 2, 2024 — Scott Johnson
President Biden extended his regular working hours yesterday to read a brief statement condemning the Supreme Court for its decision in Trump v. United States. The White House has not yet posted an official transcript. I have posted video at the bottom. Biden took no questions and thus afforded no opportunity to explore the meaning of his condemnation. I thought I would translate his remarks as a public service. I
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June 13, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Last night I was on Seth Leibsohn’s excellent Phoenix radio show for a full three segments. That gave us time to cover a number of subjects: my forecast for the 2024 presidential race; the trumped-up prosecutions of Trump; how financial incentives account for support for liberalism; why the Democrats are so devoted to illegal immigration; do Democrats hate America?; will the criminals who firebombed my organization’s office be caught?; how
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June 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Last night, I was on the Outsiders program on Sky News Australia, talking about the Trump trial, the verdict, the likely sentence, and the aftermath. It is a quick, six minute segment that I think is worth your time. At the end, I expressed the conviction that our country is in far deeper trouble than is commonly recognized. Much more on that topic in days to come:
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June 2, 2024 — John Hinderaker
Donald Trump is a long-time fan of mixed martial arts, and a good friend of Dana White, the proprietor of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Trump has often attended UFC events as White’s guest. He did that again last night, in one of his first public appearances (maybe the first) since the absurd Manhattan verdict. Check out the crowd’s reaction when he entered the arena: Donald Trump gets a standing ovation
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June 2, 2024 — Steven Hayward
For readers still puzzled about exactly how the Trump trial went down and why Alvin Bragg’s case was so convoluted, Brad Smith, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission whose testimony on this point was disallowed by Judge Merchan, offers this primer in two long threads on Twitter/X: Falsifying business records under NY law is a misdemeanor, unless done to hide a crime. Bragg says that crime was a violation
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June 1, 2024 — John Hinderaker
I probably should have given up prognosticating after the 2016 election, when I predicted that Donald Trump would beat Hillary Clinton. I have hardly gotten one right since. But a little while ago, on Sky News Australia, I offered a prediction that I will repeat here. The question was, what do I think Judge Merchan’s sentence will be? I prefaced my answer with the observation that Merchan will do whatever
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May 31, 2024 — John Hinderaker
For the second time in their ignoble history, the Democrats have fired on Fort Sumter. Now the question is, what are we going to do about it? I wrote my initial thoughts on the Trump verdict yesterday afternoon. I want to add to them here. If Joe Biden is re-elected following this outrage, he will be an illegitimate president. What does that mean? It means, I think, that no one
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May 31, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The trial of Donald Trump on jerry-rigged charges produced the foreordained outcome. Trump was found guilty by a Manhattan jury of 34 felony charges. It couldn’t have been otherwise. This was a show trial. It would have been more efficient — it would have saved a day or two in show time — if Judge Merchan had simply directed a verdict of guilt and sent the jury home when the
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