“[The] Trump indictment undermines democracy because if a law is going to be enforced, it should be enforced equally and fairly across the board. The selective use of govt institutions and law enforcement to go after political or personal opponents, undermines the very essence of the rule of law, which is the foundation for our democracy,” ex-Democrat Tulsi Gabbard posted to her Locals account recently.
What Tulsi is touching on with the “selective use of govt institutions and law enforcement” is a phenomenon called anarcho-tyranny, in which politically favored individuals in the in-group are permitted to violate the letter of the law with impunity (a good example being the “mostly peaceful” “Summer of Love” 2020 BLM riots).
Meanwhile, under anarcho-tyranny, a robust enforcement regime is foisted upon members of the out-group (in the modern context consisting mostly of alt-right MAGA “domestic terrorists”). Law enforcement, in short, is entirely politicized.
While both Joe Biden and Mike Pence have admitted to housing classified documents illegally — neither of them even having a theoretical defense, as they were never president (at the time) and therefore have no authority to declassify anything — the DOJ has declined to pursue charges against either man because they are favored members of the ruling class in good standing.
The Trump indictments are also a clear example of lawfare, commonly defined as “the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent.”
The good news for the Trump camp regarding the obvious lawfare waged against him is that it so far has only seemed to fortify his support among the GOP base. Following a previous (also politically motivated) indictment earlier this year in New York, the base rallied around him.
Via Politico, March 31, 2023 (emphasis added):
In a number of surveys released over the past two weeks, most Americans said the then-rumored charges against Trump were fair and serious. In an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College poll released last week, 56 percent of Americans said, taken together, the investigations into Trump’s conduct were fair, and 55 percent of voters in a Quinnipiac University poll out this week said the probe into Trump’s alleged hush-money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels was serious.
But among Republicans, those numbers were all reversed. They believed Trump was being unfairly targeted — 80 percent of Republicans in the Marist poll said Trump is facing a “witch hunt” — and New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was bringing charges for conduct that is either legal or not serious enough to merit criminal indictment.
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