I Don't Agree with Dershowitz's Saying the Case was Rigged

   I will spare you my putting this into a poem.

   Alan Dershowitz is in the news. He hops on Fox News and says the case against Trump was rigged. You remember Dershowitz, don't you -- one of the most respected lawyers in America. And the Fox New host makes sure the listeners realize Dershowitz is a liberal.

   Yes, and Dersh also served as a Trump lawyer in 2020, so he is not an impartial source.

   When Dershowitz and other Trumpers suggest the case was rigged, how so? It seems to be the argument is that the laws had never been interpreted this way. This was a first. If we want to determine if he was guilty, or if, instead, it was rigged, we would have to read the laws used. What do they say? What does the actual text say? Does the text spell out a felony? At this point, here are some things to consider:
 
   1) It was a grand jury that indicted him. If this was a fixed case, how did whoever was doing the fixing, do the fixing? How did they get to the grand jury? How did they influence them to come up with the indictment?

   2) It was a jury that convicted him. The Fox News host says Judge Merchan, in his instructions to the jury, basically laid out a road map for convicting him. I'm not so sure that is accurate. I remember a news story saying that Merchan instructed the jury that they could not convict the man unless they found his cooking the books was done to increase his chances of being elected. At least one pundit at the time suggested this instruction would make it harder to come up with a conviction. But, I think the judge did the right thing, if that was his instruction. As I understand the case, his cooking the books was but a misdemeanor in and of itself. But if it was done to cover up a felony, such as election fraud, then the it rose to the level of a felony. I am not concerned with whether the law had ever been used this way so long as that is what the law actually said. I am concerned with whether it was a correct way to read the law, that's all. If the law says something, that's it. Enforce it even if you haven't before.