Pro-Trump Republicans — not Alvin Bragg — are 'undermining the rule of law': former Reagan speechwriter

When the news broke that a grand jury in New York City had indicted former President Donald Trump, it didn't take right-wing media outlets and Republican leaders — including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) — long to rush to his defense. The party line among Trump's Republican defenders is that Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Jr., who has been investigating Trump for alleged hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, is undermining the rule of law and that the indictment is an overtly partisan attack on the ex-president.

But one person on the right who doesn't see it that way at all is veteran opinion columnist/author and former Nancy Reagan speechwriter Mona Charen. In an article published by The Bulwark on April 4, the Never Trump conservative argues that it is MAGA Republicans, not Bragg, who is attacking the rule of law.

"The indictment by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is risky, but nothing about it undermines the rule of law," Charen emphasizes. "The risks are political and prudential. The Republicans, by contrast, are chest-deep in contempt for law."

READ MORE:Trump's advisers say he is 'prepared to escalate attacks' on Alvin Bragg

GOP responses to the indictment, Charen laments, are the most recent example of the "rally round the criminal effect."

"After the completely justified, arguably essential, search of Mar-a-Lago for stolen top secret documents," Charen observes, "the GOP sprang to Trump's defense in Pavlovian fashion…. Another political risk: Bragg played to Trump's strengths in some ways. The news of the impending indictment, announced by Trump himself with a faulty timeline, made Trump the center of attention and stoked his favorite posture: aggrieved victim of the Democrats and the 'deep state'…. A second Trump presidency would be a catastrophe for the United States, and accordingly, anything that boosts Trump's popularity among Republicans and makes it more likely that he is the 2024 nominee is perilous."

Charen stresses, however, that the "political risks" of prosecuting Trump for alleged hush money payments to Daniels don't mean that the indictment and Bragg's investigation aren't perfectly legitimate.

"Trump's lawyer/fixer (Michael Cohen) went to prison for this crime," Charen notes. "There is no question that a crime was committed. Bragg has followed the rules. Trump will get his day in court. He will have every opportunity to argue his innocence to a jury of his peers…. (Bragg) has vindicated an important principle: that no one is above the law. Republicans, by contrast, have demonstrated reckless contempt for rules, order, and justice in service to their deranged master."

READ MORE:Alvin Bragg smacks down Jim Jordan: No 'legitimate basis for congressional inquiry'

Read Mona Charen’s full article for The Bulwark at this link.