With the unhinged forces of the Deep State now apparently intent on forcing Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon off of his trial in Miami, attention might well be directed to a curious ruling by another federal judge, Berryl Howell, accepting the argument of the Justice Department that former President Trump -- to quote from a CNN account of that ruling -- "may have committed a crime."
The New York Times reported:
A federal judge has ruled that prosecutors overseeing the investigation into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents can pierce assertions of attorney-client privilege and compel one of his lawyers to answer more questions before a grand jury, two people familiar with the case said on Friday.
In making her ruling, the judge, Beryl A. Howell, found that the government had met the threshold for a special provision of the law known as the crime-fraud exception. That provision allows prosecutors to work around attorney-client privilege when they have reason to believe that legal advice or legal services have been used in furthering a crime.
Judge Howell’s ruling, arguably, denied the attorney-client privilege to Mr. Trump, delimiting his rights to a fair trial under the Sixth Amendment.
Judge Howell (Photo credit: US DIstrict Court for the District of Columbia)
An indictment merely alleges charges. An indictment does not determine the fact of criminal conduct. It is for the jury to determine the facts, "beyond all reasonable doubt." Has Judge Howell, by accepting the anti-Trump mindset of the Justice Department, taken a shortcut to a finding of guilt in the Trump case -- a shortcut based on her own anti-Trump bias?
A review of the record of the anti-Trump zealots, from the Russia hoax until today, makes it clear that the anti-Trump zealot will always, without evidence, conclude the worst about Donald J. Trump. He is regularly accused of criminal conduct: anti-Trump zealots like Mark F. Pomerantz, compare him to a mafioso. Speaker Pelosi projected the accusation of Ukraine bribery, probably applicable to the Bidens, onto Trump at the time of Impeachment I. Trump also is regularly accused of obstructing justice – see, for example, Muellergate, now discredited by the Durham Report,
The list of Trump villifiers goes on and on and on. Just read the hate-filled columns and news reports in the New York Times. Don't forget the reflexive charge from the foes of America liberty that Mr. Trump is a threat to democracy. And let's not forget the left's "No one is above the law" blather -- that should have two words added: "except leftists."
What the anti-Trump zealots are doing, of course, is weaponizing the law to destroy an American patriot. The issue is not Donald J. Trump. The issue is our survival as a constitutional republic -- freed from Deep State hegemony,
In view of the record of the spewers of daily Trump-hate, shouldn't this test have been applied to Beryl Howell's ruling piercing the attorney-client relationship for former president Trump: Is it more likely or less likely that the Obama-appointed Judge Howell, sitting in the very blue jurisdiction of Washington, D.C, has accepted the DOJ's argument to deny Mr. Trump his full Sixth Amendment rights, because she is accepts conclusory allegations assuming the worst of Donald J. Trump?
Shouldn't we demand that Judge Beryl Howell explain why she has acted to tilt the Scales of Justice against Donald J. Trump -- in the manner of a Nancy Pelosi, or Adam Schiff, or Andrew Weissman, or William Barr -- and the rest of the corrupt Deep State establishment? Presently, the Deep State is so unhinged as to be confident it will railroad Donald J. Trump into prison. God forbid the foes of our freedoms succeed -- for if they do, their success will blow the Constitution into smithereens.