Donald Trump, still facing four criminal cases as he also continues another run for president, is again trying the public assertion that his courtroom hurdles should be halted because… reasons?
In commentary Monday on his knock-off social media site Truth Social, Trump claimed that procedural rules at the Department of Justice block prosecution of someone actively running for office. It’s unclear any such rules — or indications of the standard — exist.
“The Very Strict Rules and Regulations of the Department of Injustice STATE CLEARLY that you can’t prosecute a Political Opponent, or anyone, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS/HER CAMPAIGN,” Trump said, later adding incorrectly: “This includes DOJ subservient “subsidiaries” like local D.A. & A.G. Offices. In other words, all of these FAKE POLITICAL PROSECUTIONS (PERSECUTIONS!) OF CROOKED JOE BIDEN’S POLITICAL OPPONENT MUST BE IMMEDIATELY HALTED.”
District attorney and attorney general teams that he referenced are not “subservient” to the Department of Justice, though that federal department may be approached for the potential review of actions elsewhere. But that’s the whole point of a lot of this: state and federal authorities are different entities. Trump’s simply wrong.
It smacks of arguable desperation for Trump to be bombastically trying out these arguments in public… where it’s not as though a judicial authority might just see the post and decide to grant Trump’s demands across the rhetorical board. He’s waging a PR campaign, founding much of his unfolding bid for office on personal grievances over his treatment in court. He links these claimed hurdles of imaginary plots to interfere in this year’s elections to supposedly national decline, but no. One man facing duly proceeding consequences for his alleged actions doesn’t mean that the United States is failing. Trump has had access to procedural protections of the sort normally available to individuals subject to the justice system throughout these developments.
