President Trump, who was found guilty in a New York court, claimed that the trial was rigged and that the entire trial was a fraudulent scheme to persecute him with the aim of influencing the presidential election in 2024. In response, many of President Trump’s opponents have criticized him for undermining public trust in the criminal justice system and undermining democracy, a criticism that has been widely covered by many media outlets.
However, these critics miss the point and undermine a principle that is actually essential to protecting our republic: that criticizing the justice system when it errs or oversteps its authority is necessary to protect freedom under the rule of law.
All procedures in our judicial system are not to be accepted uncritically.
The founders of our country recognized this need.
Alexander Hamilton, who represented the defendant in a famous libel suit peoplev.Crosswellwarned that “the most dangerous, the most certain, and the most deadly tyranny” operates “by selecting and victimizing individuals, under the mask and form of law, by subordinate and biased tribunals.”
“Against such measures we should be alert and manly,” Hamilton continued, “and whenever they are adopted we should resist them, and resist them until we have cast down the demagogues and tyrants from their imaginary thrones.” No sensible American would look back on these statements and think that Hamilton was thereby undermining democracy.
Hamilton’s greatest rival, Thomas Jefferson, acted on similar views. As president, Jefferson pardoned a publisher convicted under the Sedition Act of 1798. Jefferson’s actions were inseparable from his belief that the law was unconstitutional and that U.S. courts had committed a grave injustice by convicting defendants under it. In fact, the pardon power is included in the U.S. Constitution and many state constitutions and is routinely used, precisely because prosecutors and courts can make mistakes or deliberately abuse their power over the lives and liberties of citizens.
These dangers are recognized by federal law. Title 18 of the United States Code prohibits and punishes “the deprivation of rights in the name of law.” The very language of this provision acknowledges that those entrusted with administering justice may sometimes act lawlessly and unjustly. The Department of Justice Website It points out that this provision may apply not only to “police officers, sheriff’s deputies, and prison guards,” but also, as appropriate, to “judges, district attorneys,” and “other public officials.” This important provision is itself an admission by the government that not all procedures in our judicial system are to be accepted uncritically.
Anyone familiar with American history knows that the problem of politicization and corruption of the justice system has not disappeared in modern times and continues to rear its ugly head precisely when political passions run high and communities become enraged against leaders they deeply hate. In the 1960s, Alabama authorities tried Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for perjury on tax returns.
The prosecution was clearly a cynical attempt to rob an important American political and social movement of its most capable leader. But in this case, even an all-white, male Alabama jury recognized the unjust nature of the case and acquitted Dr. King. I was grateful. He thanked the jury for their “fair, honest and just verdict” and praised the Alabama judge for conducting the trial in an “honorable and noble manner.”
If criticism of prosecutors and courts is permissible and even necessary under certain circumstances, the only important question at this point is whether such criticism is justified in the case of President Trump’s New York conviction. Is it reasonable for fair-minded Americans today to echo Dr. King’s words and congratulate the Manhattan jury for its “fair” verdict and praise Judge Marchan for his “noble and noble” handling of the trial?
For the answer to that question, one need not look to Trump or his outraged supporters. One need only look to the assessment of respected CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig. write New York Magazine: “Prosecutors Caught Trump, But They Perverted the Law”
Editor’s note: This article was first Tom KlingensteinNow available via RealClearWire.
