Bartlesville Radio: The area’s best source for news, weather and sports!

On Thursday, twelve Manhattan jurors found the 45^th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump guilty in a court of law fewer than 200 days before Election Day. This ruling demonstrates the first ever criminal conviction of a former President. By any reasonable evaluation, the jurors in Manhattan did their jobs, but that says nothing of the unjustified, unprecedented, and corrupt political handiwork that has forever marked this case as one of the darkest in America’s history. 

Let’s be clear about one thing: the only thing Donald Trump is guilty of is being the chief political rival of Joe Biden. No American in the history of our great nation has been subject to this kind of kangaroo court. To this day, the prosecution has failed to articulate a single crime that’s been committed. 

This corrupt case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a raging liberal Democrat whose chief campaign promise was to “get Trump.” The case was prosecuted by a partisan activist, DNC consultant, and former Biden DOJ official. The show “trial” hinged on the testimony of disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen, a proven liar and admitted thief. It was presided over by an inherently biased judge (a Biden donor), in the most liberal county in America, using an unfair process designed to keep Donald Trump off the campaign trail and off the ballot in November. 

What’s more, Donald Trump is conveniently set to be sentenced on July 11^th, 2024 – just four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

It doesn’t take a law degree to see that this trial was a political exercise, not a legal one. 

There is absolutely no evidence that President Trump has broken any state or federal laws. Beyond that, New York doesn’t even have legal jurisdiction over a case whose statute of limitations expired and hinges on federal campaign law. In fact, Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor, and CNN legal analyst wrote, “no state prosecutor – in New York, or Wyoming, or anywhere – has ever charged federal election laws as a direct or predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None. Ever.” 

This political show “trial” was legally baseless, and I’m confident it will be overturned on appeal. 

Today, partisan liberals are celebrating. They’d love nothing more than to lock up the leading Republican candidate for President. There is nothing honorable about rooting against the core principles of the American justice system, which at its foundation requires the government to prosecute cases with blind justice. In this case, Alvin Bragg did precisely the opposite. He waited years for Trump to announce his bid for re-election, saw the polls, and brought charges precisely to brand Joe Biden’s chief political rival as a “criminal.”

Oklahomans know that far-Left radical Democrats have been coming after Donald Trump since he came down the escalator in Trump Tower. That’s no secret. However, every Oklahoman should be gravely concerned by this unprecedented assault on our judicial system. America has the best system in the world, but there must be accountability for those who weaponize our legal process. I believe the American people will have something to say about this in November.

U.S. Senator Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) is a successful business owner and working cow-calf rancher serving Oklahoma on the Senate Armed Services; Environment and Public Works; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; and Indian Affairs Committees.