Democrats should be dinged for an in-kind contribution to the Donald Trump campaign for bringing the criminal charges that resulted in a felony conviction in New York City.

Money began pouring into the former president’s campaign so rapidly after the verdict was announced that it briefly crashed the fundraising website. Donors big and small pledged millions of additional dollars to help get Trump elected. It also has the potential to bring Never Trumpers back in the fold.

Nothing fires up the Trump base more than the perception that he is the victim of persecution by the “deep state.” The New York jury delivered a jackpot motivator, with Trump leaving the courtroom declaring, “I am a political prisoner!”

Whoever cooked up this scheme to beat Trump in the courts rather than the campaign trail will go down as one of the dumbest political strategists in history.

Of course Trump should not be above prosecution for crimes committed during his time in office, as he claims.

But if you’re going to drag into a courtroom a former president who is again an active candidate for the office, it has to be done without a hint of partisan motivation and with impeccable impartiality by those bringing and hearing the charges.

This case failed that test with a capital F.

The charges were filed by New York Prosecutor Alvin Bragg, who had publicly expressed his desire to get Trump, in a city that is 85% Democratic, better assuring a jury sympathetic to the prosecution. He hit Trump with 34 felony charges to make an offense typically treated as a misdemeanor appear a lot more sinister than it was. We still don’t know what made it a felony.

Judge Juan Merchan was laden with conflicts, starting with a daughter who fundraises for Democrats and hamstrung the defense at every turn. The judge’s final instructions to the jury seemed designed to coax them to a conviction.

Trump was never going to get a fair trial in this courtroom. The additional criminal cases awaiting him are just as fraught. In Florida, the federal charges for mishandling classified documents stand against a decision not to indict President Joe Biden for a similar offense in part because the prosecutor feared he lacked the mental acuity to defend himself.

And in Atlanta, Fani Willis, another prosecutor with an avowed hostility toward Trump, has so bumbled the election interference charges that she has forfeited all credibility.

These cases are a huge hit to democracy, delivered by those who pretend to be its defenders. Banana republics drag their opponents into kangaroo courts. This country never has before. Now it will become the norm.

Even many who are not inclined to support Trump will cry foul over the justice system being used for such partisan purposes.

Democrats fulfilled a long-held fantasy — the ability to label Trump a convicted felon in every campaign ad they run. But they’ve also given Trump the thing he most thrives on, concrete confirmation of his martyrdom.

Tribune News Service