Trump and Nixon

We all know about the non-stop lawfare attacks on Donald Trump. You might like Trump or hate him, but it shouldn’t matter. Every American who cares about justice and the rule of law should be concerned about them.

It corrodes the system of justice that’s long been a source of national pride.

Besides being a financial analyst, I’m also an attorney with a deep understanding of constitutional law. And what they’re trying to do to Trump is unconstitutional in many cases, and in some instances egregiously so.

I’m not a fan of Joe Biden to put it mildly. But I’d be equally appalled if Republicans used the same type of lawfare against him based on specious legal grounds. It shouldn’t happen in the United States, period, regardless of political orientation. It shouldn’t be a partisan issue.

But unfortunately, Democrats have chosen to open Pandora’s box. Beyond the current lawfare, Democrats moved against Trump from the very beginning, in cooperation with the deep state.

Get Trump at Any Cost

It began with the Russian collusion hoax orchestrated by Hillary Clinton in 2016 followed by Operation Crossfire Hurricane run by the FBI and CIA that tied the Trump administration in knots (as intended) from 2017–2019.

This was followed by two impeachments (2019 and 2021) on bogus charges, then the Jan. 6 setup where Trump urged a peaceful demonstration at the Capitol, but Nancy Pelosi refused to deploy the National Guard (as Trump requested) or to notify the Capitol Police (standard operating procedure) in order to precipitate the riot helped along by lots of undercover FBI agents egging the protesters on.

Once Trump decided to enter the 2024 presidential race, he was hit with an “insurrectionist” label to kick him off state ballots in Maine and Colorado, then with the Jan. 6 case in Washington; the classified documents case in Palm Beach; the RICO conspiracy charge in Fulton County, Georgia; and most ridiculous of all, the loan application and “hush money” cases in New York City that threaten to bankrupt Trump or put him in jail.

That’s quite a list but the lawfare freaks have a few more tricks up their sleeves between now and the next election.

Serve Trump, Pay the Price

What’s not as well-known are the other targets of Democratic lawfare, including Trump-affiliated lawyers and advisers.

These include the 73-year-old Harvard-trained economist Peter Navarro, who is now in federal prison; former Trump campaign manager and adviser Steve Bannon, who is now awaiting imprisonment on federal charges; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was hit with a summons at his 80th birthday party; and John Eastman, a prominent lawyer and constitutional scholar who was arrested in Arizona on 2020 election charges despite having had no involvement in contesting the Arizona election results.

Lawfare is being used against candidates, advisers, members of Congress, judges and others who in any way support Trump or his policies

The purpose of this is clear. Lawfare fanatics not only want to disable Trump, but they also want to disable his advisers and intimidate any other qualified professionals from helping Trump. This is not just lawfare; it’s warfare.

Even if the charges are completely bogus, which is almost always the case, you have to hire attorneys to defend you in court. That could potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars — or more in Trump’s case.

Donald Trump might be able to afford to hire all these expensive lawyers to defend him. But most others can’t. So lawfare is designed to ruin them financially. And that’s the point. Even if you win in court, you still lose because you’ve been ruined financially, or at least badly damaged.

Anyone on Team Trump who doesn’t understand the stakes will get run over or worse. But is it really new?

Nixon and Watergate

Lawfare is a good way to understand what happened to Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal in 1972–1974 that resulted in his being driven from office. First, some context is required.

Nixon was elected in a close election in 1968 and then reelected in one of the greatest landslides in U.S. history in 1972. (Nixon carried 49 of the 50 states. Nixon’s opponent George McGovern carried only Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.).

It should be noted that Nixon had an impactful presidency. He opened relations with China after a 25-year freeze, ended the Vietnam War (started by John F. Kennedy and escalated by Lyndon Johnson) after 10 years of combat and over 50,000 Americans killed, created the Environmental Protection Agency (for better or worse) and was president when the first men landed on the moon. Nixon also negotiated the first nuclear arms limitation treaty with the Soviet Union.

To this day, there is no evidence that Nixon knew about the Watergate break-in in advance or had any hand in authorizing it. But as is often said, the cover-up is worse than the crime.

The Long Knives Were out for Nixon

Once the break-in participants were arrested, the White House went into damage-control mode. There’s no doubt Nixon broke the law by authorizing payments to the burglars and their families. He was also aware of perjury by some of his aides. Still, these were not momentous crimes relative to what almost all of his predecessors had done.

Nixon’s acts could arguably be viewed as in the national interest to preserve what had been a successful administration in both domestic and foreign policy. The scandal could have ended with some criminal trials of both campaign officials and some White House officials involved in the cover-up.

But the FBI, liberal media and Democrats were out for blood. Using leaks from Mark Felt (deputy director of the FBI also known as Deep Throat), friendly media outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post and hearings in the Democrat-controlled Senate (summer of 1973) and House (summer of 1974), Nixon’s enemies raised the temperature and, in the end, made Nixon’s resignation almost inevitable due to the threat of impeachment.

Donald Trump has been through this and more; he’s been impeached twice. The point is Trump should study the Watergate playbook to avoid some of Nixon’s mistakes and for guidance on how to stand up to the wolf pack behavior of the progressive media.

He’s going to need all the help he can get.