Trump using courts to settle his scores

President Trump’s crusade to indict his longtime adversary, former FBI Director James Comey, wasn’t about justice. It was about headlines.

The case was absurdly weak from the start. Only one lawyer in the Virginia DOJ office signed off on it: Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s personal attorney, who has no experience as a prosecutor. The previous U.S. Attorney, Erik Seibert, refused to bring the case, saying there wasn’t enough evidence. Trump fired him.

So why did Trump urge the DOJ to go forward? Because Trump knows from personal experience the power of accusation. A grand jury indictment creates a media storm. It paints Comey as a criminal in the public eye, and that’s often enough. Trump’s goal isn’t conviction. He wants to humiliate Comey.

That’s how strongmen operate. They use the courts to settle scores, not to uphold the law. Even if the judge ultimately throws the case out (which is highly likely due to the lack of evidence and the appearance of misconduct), Trump will still win the narrative. He will blame the system, calling the judge corrupt or “a lunatic leftie.” That way, he uses the justice system to attack his opponent, and if the case fails, he uses the failure to attack the system itself.

When legal systems become tools of revenge, democracy is in trouble. We are already at the edge of dictatorship. If Trump turns the courtroom into theater, we edge closer to Stalin’s motto, “Show me the man and I’ll........

© The Leader Herald