Lawfare Isn't Beaten -- In France or America

Elections are supposed to be decided at the ballot box, not in the courtroom — unless you're French, or, in this country, a liberal.

What a judge in France has just done by disqualifying Marine Le Pen from running in that nation's next presidential election is what Democrats dream of doing here.

The controversial populist was ahead in the polls, but now Le Pen isn't even eligible to run, thanks to a court that found her guilty of using European Union funds to pay for political expenses.

She insists the spending was legitimate, but as things stand French voters won't get to decide for themselves who's right.

Americans might feel safe from this kind of lawfare — when New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg went after President Donald Trump on campaign-finance technicalities, he won his case but lost his gambit.

The nakedly political prosecution only added to the momentum propelling Trump back to office, and in our country voters, not judges, get the final word: Bragg's convictions couldn't stop the Republican from running, and winning.

Yet, in many ways, the lawfare Democrats waged during and after Trump's first term succeeded.

The price of serving in a Republican administration has gone up, with incoming staffers urged to buy legal insurance to cover the costs of defending against lawfare.

"It's edging into absolute requirement territory," an official who served in Trump's first administration told NBC News in January.

"It would be reckless" to do without the insurance, he continued, "if you have any assets to protect — the house, college funds, whatever."

The legal bills from complying with — never mind fighting — federal investigations or congressional inquiries can be ruinous, as first-term Trump personnel discovered.

Lawfare isn't just a legal weapon, it's economic warfare, and the threat of it is a deterrent to anyone considering working for Trump.

But it won't stop with Trump: Whatever succeeds against his administration will be used against every future Republican White House, too.

You don't even have to serve in government to be a target.

Some of the most powerful institutions of the legal establishment not only supported the lawfare against Trump but also, after the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, punished lawyers who dared represent anyone questioning the 2020 election.

In one of the defining early moments of the American Revolution, John Adams went to court to defend the British soldiers who perpetrated the Boston Massacre.

Even they deserved respectable legal representation — but Trump and his associates, in the eyes of Big Law, did not.

Once back in office, Trump's response was to threaten these powerful firms with losing access to government privileges, from security clearances to permission to enter federal buildings — the settings for their lobbying activity.

(It's surprising that progressives, who often view lobbying as inherently corrupt, didn't cheer Trump on for this.)

Firms like Paul Weiss and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom were quick to come to agreements with the president on how they could change their ways.

Yet what happens once Trump is gone?

Had he lost last year's election, Trump would likely have been sent to prison by his enemies, and other Republicans would have been next on the legal hit list.

If Democrats win back the House next year, they'll use Congress' investigative powers to turn this administration inside-out, forcing testimony on every contentious policy and practice that Trump officials have implemented since Day 1.

And if the Republicans don't hold the White House in 2028, the kinds of political prosecutions that would have happened this year if Kamala Harris had won will take place four years from now.

Voters said no to lawfare as loudly as possible last November, awarding Trump every presidential battleground state, a popular-vote plurality and GOP control of both chambers of Congress.

But to break bad habits of lawfare will take more than one election cycle.

Democrats themselves have begun complaining that Biden officials can't get the legal representation they want because law firms are now frightened of Trump.

The left's lawfare is turning America into the legal equivalent of a "Mad Max" wasteland, where the instigators of this brutal abuse of law are themselves prey to the forces they've unleashed.

Trump is right to pressure the law firms, and they should be quick to admit their mistakes rather than repeating them — either against Republicans in the future or Democrats now.

As Washington Post columnist Jason Willick has argued, Congress should also step up, codifying into law the Justice Department's guidelines against political prosecutions and legislating to stop state officials like Alvin Bragg from bringing cases using federal campaign-finances laws, which because of their intricacy are easily weaponized.

Yet the only sure and lasting remedy for lawfare is to beat it at the ballot box, and thankfully, we Americans, unlike the French, still get to have our say there.

(COMMENT, BELOW)

Previously:
• 03/25/25: Will Trump Turn Nationalism Against America?
• 03/18/25: The Dems' Civil War
• 03/11/25: Can Donald Trump Win a Trade War?
• 03/04/25: Europe's Decline Was a Choice
• 02/25/25: How Trump Makes Europe Stronger
• 02/20/25: Tax-payers funding a sham of democracy
• 02/11/25: What Kind of a Populist Is Elon Musk?
• 02/03/25: Can Trump Win Trade Wars Before They Start?
• 01/21/25: Trump Inaugurates a New Era
• 01/14/25: Dems Aren't Democracy's Party
• 01/07/25: Donald Trump's Worldwide Election
• 12/31/24: Harmless self-deception?
• 12/17/24: Communism thriving, including HERE
• 12/10/24: Birthright Citizenship Is a Breach in the Border
• 12/03/24: Identity Politics, Not Biden, Cost Dems the Election
• 11/19/24: Why Dems Are Losing Tomorrow's Elections Today
• 11/12/24: Dems Are at a Dead End, Unless They Learn From Trump
• 10/29/24: Harris Targets Married Women
• 10/22/24: Vibes Turn Bad for Kamala Harris
• 10/15/24: Why Veterans Are Voting for Trump
• 10/08/24: How Donald Trump Can Win the Popular Vote
• 10/01/24: Iran Targets America's Elections -- and Trump
• 09/24/24: Trump's Would-Be Assassin's Explanation
• 09/17/24: When Character Assassination Becomes the Real Thing
• 09/10/24: Kamala Harris Runs Like a Republican -- and Misleads
• 09/04/24: Where Trump Is Moderate -- While Kam Is Maximalist
• 08/27/24: Donald Trump Is Reagan's Heir
• 08/20/24: Will Voters Settle for Joe Biden's Wing(wo)man?
• 08/13/24: Trump Has to Run Like It's 2016 Again
• 08/07/24: Is Trump Running Against Harris -- or Donald Trump?
• 07/30/24: Kamala Harris' 'Mean Girls' Election
• 07/23/24: Kamala Harris Is the Opponent Donald Trump Wants
• 07/16/24: Ready for Biden's Counterattack?
• 07/09/24: Biden Faces Richard Nixon's Choice
• 07/02/24: Should Biden Drop Out -- or Resign?
• 06/18/24: Separate Sexual Identity and State
• 06/18/24: Nigel Farage Makes the Trump Moment Permanent
• 06/04/24: State that's long eluded GOP turns toward Trump
• 05/21/24: Trump's Sun Belt Hopes and Rust Belt Needs
• 05/14/24: What Trump Sees in Doug Burgum
• 05/07/24: The Vietnam Era Never Ended for Biden's Party
• 05/06/24: Nationalists of the World, Unite?
• 04/25/24: Foreign Policy Splits
• 04/16/24: How pro-lifers stand to lose everything gained in overturning Roe
• 04/02/24: PBS Misremembers William F. Buckley Jr.
• 04/02/24: Who Wants to Be House Speaker?
• 03/26/24: Trump Hunts for a VP Close to Home
• 03/19/24: Princess Kate and Democracy's Discontents
• 03/12/24: Can Biden Buy the Voters?
• 03/05/24: Veepstakes Give Trump an Edge
• 02/20/24: Do Americans Trust Either Party?
• 02/13/24: Vladimir Putin -- A Passive Aggressor
• 01/23/24: Will 'Lawfare' Take Trump Off the Ballot?
• 01/16/24: Will Africa Save America?
• 01/09/24:'The Sopranos' at 25: A new world tragedy
• 01/02/24: Trump, Biden and a Fight for the Heart
• 12/12/23: What Happened to Ron DeSantis?
• 12/12/23: Biden Looks Doomed -- But Is He?
• 12/05/23: A Test for Trump and His Rivals
• 11/21/23: When Inequality Is Fatal for Men
• 11/14/23: Nevermind, The Battle's Over
• 11/07/23: War in the Dem Party -- and at the Opera
• 10/24/23: Israel's Lesson for 2024: A Lib Crackup
• 10/17/23: Libs' Dilemma: Immigration or Israel?
• 10/10/23: Why Bidenflation Defines Bidenomics
• 10/03/23: Will Gavin Newsom Copy Trump?
• 09/26/23: Biden's a Loser -- but Dems Can't Ditch Him
• 09/19/23: Do Sex Scandals Matter?
• 09/12/23: Cornel West Spells Doom for Biden
• 09/05/23: What Trump Does for Democracy
• 08/2/23: Ramaswamy: A Trump Versus Trump?
• 08/22/23: Take 'Rich Men North of Richmond' Seriously
• 08/16/23: How America Kills Its Own
• 08/08/23: The Biden Pardon That Can Spare America
• 08/01/23: Harding, a consevative for the ages
• 07/25/23: Demography Destiny, for Us and China
• 07/18/23: The Frontrunner Who Looks Like a Loser Is Biden
• 07/11/23: Britain's Bad Example for American Conservatives
• 07/05/23: Could We Still Win a Revolutionary War?
• 06/27/23: Civilizations Clash -- in Ukraine and at Home
• 06/20/23: China Comes for the Caribbean
• 06/13/23: Fertility, Family and Bio-Socialism
• 06/06/23: From American Dream to Orwell's Nightmare
• 05/23/23: Ukraine war is an existential struggle --- for the West
• 05/23/23: Learn the Right Midterm Lessons -- or Lose in 2024
• 05/16/23: Feinstein Today Is Biden Tomorrow
• 05/09/23: Trump, DeSantis and Political Courtship
• 05/02/23: RFK Jr.'s Threat to Biden
• 04/25/23: Biden's Lost Generation
• 04/25/23: Who's In Charge of Clarence Thomas?
• 04/11/23: Beyond AI, Our Cyborg Future
• 04/04/23: 2024: 3 Leaders, 1 Way to Win
• 03/28/23: Climate Science Makes a Bad Religion
• 03/21/23: All the Conspiracy That's Fit to Print