The trial that began last week in a Manhattan courtroom is a travesty of justice. There’s no two ways around it. For the first time ever in American history, a politically elected prosecutor is trying to jail a former president and current declared candidate for that office. This prosecution, coming less than seven months before the presidential election, threatens to undermine the election and ultimately harm our democracy.
The allegations behind Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump are not new. In fact, all the key points have been known since 2018. Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer, pleaded guilty to charges based on these same facts five years ago. At the time, federal prosecutors determined that no one else would be charged alongside Cohen, closing the case.
Like their federal counterparts, prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office were initially skeptical of pursuing a case against Trump on these facts. Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance passed on the case. Bragg, Vance’s successor, was ready to pass too, until a volunteer prosecutor in his office named Mark Pomerantz resigned in protest and went public criticizing Bragg. Pomerantz’s scathing resignation letter was leaked to the New York Times, and he even penned a book taking Bragg to task for not being more aggressive in going after Trump. If Pomerantz couldn’t convince Bragg to bring charges in private, he would do it publicly.
Pomerantz’s book, described by one reviewer as 300 pages of “score-settling and scorn,” lays bare the political animus motivating the prosecution of Trump. Pomerantz wrote about the thrill he got from investigating Trump and noted he would have gladly paid for the opportunity to prosecute the former president. The book described how Pomerantz pushed Bragg to resurrect the so-called “zombie” case using a convoluted and unprecedented legal theory.
To get around the statute of limitations on what are ordinarily misdemeanor charges, prosecutors could bootstrap the misdemeanor allegations into felonies by alleging that the records were falsified to conceal a second (and still undefined) crime.
Bragg ultimately succumbed to the pressure campaign, filing charges in April 2023 based on Pomerantz’s blueprint. Bragg built his case around the testimony of his star witness, Michael Cohen. But to say Cohen has a credibility problem is an understatement. Cohen has been convicted of several crimes, including lying to Congress. He’s been disbarred as a lawyer. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan described Cohen’s criminal conduct as “knowing and calculated acts — acts Cohen executed in order to profit personally, build his own power, and enhance his level of influence.” When sentencing Cohen in 2018, a federal judge called his wrongdoing “extensive” and “a veritable smorgasbord of fraudulent conduct.”
Bragg isn’t the first Democrat to try to use Cohen to attack President Trump. In February 2019, the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee invited Cohen to testify at a hearing. In the course of just a few hours on Capitol Hill, Cohen managed to lie six separate times on matters both small and large. He lied about committing various fraudulent acts, crimes to which he pleaded guilty in federal court. Cohen’s lies were so brazen that it earned him a criminal referral to the Justice Department for perjury.
Even if one overlooked the political origins of this case, the untested legal theory and the credibility problems of the star witness, there remain other procedural irregularities that prevent President Trump from getting a fair shake. Bragg’s office declined to extend the normal courtesy to Trump of notifying him in advance of the government’s witness order. Bragg’s office obtained a gag order to bar Trump from engaging in protected political speech under the threat of criminal contempt. While Cohen is free to smear Trump in the national media, Trump must remain silent or face fines and jail time.
Think about that. As part of a political prosecution, at the height of the presidential campaign, Democrats in New York have silenced the Republican candidate and prevented him from defending himself from these attacks.
Alvin Bragg’s prosecution is a sad continuation of a long line of Democratic attempts to get President Trump. From the 2016 Russia hoax to the copycat political prosecutions in Atlanta and Washington going on today, Democrats have put America through eight years of turmoil all because of politics.
Americans see through this charade. They intuitively know when someone’s getting a raw deal. They see crime in Manhattan as Bragg spends his time prosecuting a president for political reasons. They see violent criminals roaming the streets and local businesses shutting down because it’s unsafe. Americans are smarter than Democrats give them credit for. Americans understand that politics is why President Trump is on trial.
Jim Jordan is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and represents Ohio’s 4th District, Nicole Malliotakis represents New York’s 11th District and Jeff Van Drew represents New Jersey’s 2nd District.