"Lady Justice" by Hugo de Groot A Poem on the Trump Conviction: ‘The Witch Hunt’ by Brian Yapko The Society June 2, 2024 Culture, Poetry 42 Comments . The Witch Hunt I’ve been a lawyer for a long, long time And seen a lot of things that shouldn’t be— Like rape and murder; every type of violence But now I’ve seen the worst—a made-up crime: A prosecution born of tyranny Not to protect the people but to silence The once and future leader of this land; To try to paralyze his right to run For president; and thereby break the spirit Of those who would support his needed stand. A hostile venue, jury, judge—not one Conservative. What’s truth if none will hear it? What gets me is the prosecution’s genesis: Some Democrats collude and say “Let’s get him.” They do not care for what, “Just make him burn.” For years they dig for dirt to smear their nemesis, Some novel “crime,” untested, grossly slim In law but such a scandal it might turn The course of this election to the Left! They don’t care half the nation’s left bereft And that our justice system’s torn and cleft By lawfare—cynical albeit deft. When Democrats will gladly win through theft, It’s clear that there is no Republic left. . Poet’s Note: What I find appalling about the criminal case verdict is its genesis. Nobody was murdered. Nobody robbed. No event occurred which resulted in a call to the police or a complaint to a judge. No, what happened was that certain Democrats got together, burning the midnight oil, searching, hunting, brainstorming ways to get Donald Trump. This was a “research” crime based on technicalities and fueled by the conceit “It doesn’t matter what we get him on, we simply have to get him.” Had Donald Trump agreed not to run for president in exchange for a dismissal of charges, is there any doubt that the prosecutor would have jumped on this? And that the judge would have immediately approved it? It is that “let’s get him on any theory we can” attitude that now characterizes the weaponization of our justice system against our own people. . . Brian Yapko is a retired lawyer whose poetry has appeared in over fifty journals. He is the winner of the 2023 SCP International Poetry Competition. Brian is also the author of several short stories, the science fiction novel El Nuevo Mundo and the gothic archaeological novel Bleeding Stone. He lives in Wimauma, Florida. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 42 Responses Cheryl Corey June 2, 2024 This has to be the witch hunt of all witch hunts. No one was previously willing to prosecute DJT – not the FEC, not Bragg’s predecessor; not even Bragg himself – until Brandon’s DOJ conspired to send Colangelo to oversee Bragg’s prosecution. Why else does a high-ranking DOJ official effectively take a demotion for a NY state case? Damn them all to hell. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Cheryl, I agree fully — this is the witch hunt of all witch hunts — 100% personality-driven and only because the name of the defendant was Donald Trump. Of course this all emanated from the very top and then trickled down through the swampy halls of the Department of Justice. Though if I had to guess, this sounds like the legalistic strategizing of a Barack Obama — Biden’s eminent gris, unelected regent, the shadow-president who embodies the concept “the end justifies the means.” I see Obama’s fingerprints all over the masterminding of this persecution. And I see Screwtape’s fingerprints all over Obama. With this persecution and a hundred other monumentally bad decisions, has any president besides Obama done greater damage to this country? Cheryl, I am sympathetic to your curse on all those saboteurs of our Republic, known and unknown. In the olden days we would have called them “traitors.” Reply Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Brian, Your poem and your comments are spot on. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (Barak Obama). Eighty years ago, Biden, who is gleefully labeling Trump as a felon, would have been tried and convicted for treason. Phil S.Rogers June 2, 2024 Excellent Brian. I believe this trial and verdict have opened the eyes of many people as to how rotten our system of law has become, has strayed from its premise of justice for all and has been weaponized against the average American. Is our republic gone? It certainly is in serious trouble. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much, Phil. I certainly hope you are right. Given the extraordinary amount of donations Trump received in the 48 hours after this Stalinist verdict came down, it really does seem as if people are recognizing at last the socialist Soros-funded liberal fiefdom that our justice system has become. Does our Republic have a future? I’m having a difficult time coming up with a historic corollary of a great nation in decline which yet managed to arrest that decline, avoid collapse and restore the true ideals of its founding. Reply Peg June 2, 2024 “What’s truth if none will hear it?” Thank you. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Peg, I’m so glad this poem spoke to you. Thank you for reading and commenting! Reply Mike Bryant June 2, 2024 Brian, this is a travesty. You have described the difficult process the prosecutors/persecutors had to follow to frame Trump. But that’s only because they are still feeling their way into tyranny mode. Don’t worry though, soon they will have procedures in place to streamline their war crimes against anyone accused. Having a spat with your girlfriend? No problem. Just call the Traitor Tip Line. The State will be ready to take her away. It’s a lot cheaper to send her to the gulag than to employ her… everyone will be working for the state soon. Those applauding this government overreach don’t realize that they are on the list, too. From “The Gulag Archipelago” Irina Tuchinskaya was arrested while leaving church. (The intention was to arrest their whole family.) And she was charged with having “prayed in church for the death of Stalin.” (Who could have heard that prayer?) Terrorism! Twenty-five years! However, for the most part fantastic accusations were not really required. There existed a very simple standardized collection of charges from which it was enough for the interrogator to pick one or two and stick them like postage stamps on an envelope: * Discrediting the Leader * A negative attitude toward the collective-farm structure * A negative attitude toward state loans (and what normal person could have had a positive attitude!) * A negative attitude toward the Stalinist constitution * A negative attitude toward whatever was the immediate, particular measure being carried out by the Party * Sympathy for Trotsky * Friendliness toward the United States * Etc., etc., etc. If you haven’t read Solzhenitsyn’s book, now is a good time. It’s a frightening look into where this nonsense leads. Reply Roy Eugene Peterson June 3, 2024 Mike, this is a great contribution and as one who has read the Gulag Archipelago and is steeped in its lore from my study of Russian history and literature, you are completely correct. All the signs are here in our own country now and we have to fight with whatever capabilities we have. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Mike, thank you for this amazing and insightful comment which now has me reeling with even more anxiety. But, of course, that simply means I’m paying attention. Everything you describe imparts the shock of recognition in the most concerning way. As a result, I have ordered “The Gulag Archipelago” and plan to give it priority reading. The idea that our leaders are “feeling their way into tyranny mode” makes sense. It also sounds like excellent source-material for some biting satire, especially with that traitor tip line. “How to Transform a Nation…” something along those lines. Will you accept the challenge? Either way, thank you for this evocative and meaty comment. Reply Joseph S. Salemi June 2, 2024 This “trial” was the epitome of openly partisan lawfare against a political enemy. Every lawyer to whom I have spoken says that this “conviction” has no more justification or legal standing than a lynching. If Trump had tried to do this against Hillary Clinton in 2017, the Democrats and their mainstream media whores would have screamed like stuck pigs until we were deaf. There really isn’t any sense left in trying to talk to left-liberals. We should just treat them as human vermin. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Joe, I also know of no lawyers who respect 1) the D.A. for bringing this case; 2) the judge who put not a finger but a fist on the scale in favor of conviction; and 3) the jury which spent 20 minutes (at most) on each of these 34 counts. It would not shock me to learn that extrajudicial pressure was put on the jurors to vote for conviction, but that is pure speculation. It is equally likely that they, like the D.A. and judge, were simply anxious to “get” Trump no matter what, and on any theory. The case is thick with instances of reversible error but the appellate court won’t get to this before the election. Which is all they cared about at the trial level. Every time they refer to Trump they want the bragging rights of saying “convicted felon.” Well, I think that every time we refer to Trump we should say “political prisoner.” Reply Joshua C. Frank June 3, 2024 I’ve come to the same conclusion as you have. We have no real common ground with them, as even they admit. Reply Susan Jarvis Bryant June 2, 2024 Brian, thank you very much indeed for saying it as it is in an educative, engaging, eloquent, and passionate poem at a time we need it most. The fact that you “have been a lawyer for a long, long time /And seen a lot of things that shouldn’t be” adds gravitas to every word… and every word of this should be heard by all and heeded before justice in America can’t be pulled back from the brink. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Susan, for this generous comment. I had started a poem on “the day after” but yours was so good I did not feel it necessary. And I couldn’t pull two thoughts together to do it. But as the days rolled along I felt that I had a unique perspective since I have some legal experience under my belt. There’s a world of difference between prosecuting someone who has committed a crime and killed or hurt someone versus a victimless crime based on a bookkeeping technicality which no one had awareness of until the intense research to “get him on any theory” was engaged. Criminal cases usually use microscopes to assess DNA and blood stains — not the potential political vulnerabilities of presidential candidates (although there’s a case to be made that J. Edgar Hoover acted thus. And there is that nagging question about who made enemies of JFK.) Can justice in America be pulled back from the brink? I don’t know. How do you drain a swamp when there’s no place left for the water to go? Reply Yael June 2, 2024 Well said Brian! You sum it up very well. JP Sears has a video out which shows how they came up with the charges in the Trump trial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8SzsKN7KA Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Yael! This video is great! In fact, after watching it and getting a good laugh out of an anxiety-inducing subject I have gone ahead and subscribed to this Youtube channel. As long as we can face the horrors of this world with satire and a laugh now and then there is hope. It means there are still people out there who have their heads screwed on and are paying attention. Reply Margaret Coats June 2, 2024 Brian, this reminds me that you have written another poem, “Reflections on a Visit to Salem,” where you speak of “spectral guilt” and “the hunger to accuse” in the Salem witch trials. At Salem as well, there was no evidence of crime and no victim of criminal activity. And today, most Americans could not say what offense “the once and future leader of this land” was convicted of. That line is a fine hopeful touch to this poem–true even if another election should be stolen by means of this and other trials. While the genesis of this criminal case is appalling, far more so is the genesis of the verdict. Not only was a “crime” created from nothing existing in law, but a verdict was manufactured by careful manipulation in the choice of judge and jury. Proper oversight and instructions by the judge, or attention and self-respect manifested by even one juror, should have vindicated our heritage of the jury from English law. This has occurred in numerous cases of far less import. Here, however, the venue and other troublous incidents and statements inspired no confidence. Rather, they demonstrated the verdict was a foregone conclusion owing nothing to legal procedures designed to safeguard justice. As you point out, this prosecution is intended to “silence” the people and prevent their free choice of a leader. In that sense it is a “hush money” action, attempting to pay people and leader to remain silent. But although “no disclosure” agreements are perfectly legal, no one has an obligation to accept them. Let us hope this “hush money” verdict does not silence the people, as it has not silenced the leader who is its target. Reply Lannie David Brockstein June 3, 2024 On June 2nd, 2024, Margaret Coats wrote: >>> “And today, most Americans could not say what offense “the once and future leader of this land” was convicted of.” ~~~~~ Margaret, that is also an apt description of what has been happening for more than a decade at the Big Tech social media platforms, where millions of users (including President Trump) have been “canceled” for having “violated community standards”, but without those supposed standards having been defined by those companies that pretend their own arbitrary and self-serving standards are the community’s standards. From Lannie. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Lannie, I’ve noticed what you describe concerning social media platforms which mercilessly censor conservative points of view. If conservative posts are not completely deleted, they are nonetheless buried so that few ever get to see them. It’s a terrible dereliction of duty by companies which purport to offer a non-partisan public forum. Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much indeed, Margaret — especially for connecting this poem to my “Salem” poem from a couple of years back. That “spectral guilt” and “hunger to accuse” are very much alive and well in 2024. Interestingly, though, unlike the D.A., judge and jury in this case, I’m not sure that the young girls who accused so many Salemites of being witches did so for cynical reasons as has been done with Donald Trump. As I recall the history, theirs was a mob mentality which was not political in ambition (although social/financial jealousy was a factor.) That being said that Salem mob mentality does exist today: the modern corollary would probably be the woke mob who seem to lust for Donald Trump’s blood (“put him in jail!”) No rational person presented with the identical facts of this case in which the defendant was John Smith Doe would give a darn about it, let alone care about jail time or other punishment. This is all very personal indeed concerning one man who happens to be a presidential candidate. What you are describing as “hush money” — to silence our chosen candidate for president — is absolutely brilliant. You should turn that into a poem! Reply Adam Wasem June 3, 2024 Brian, I truly appreciate your trying to put into words just how much of a catastrophe of the law this “judgement” is. The only element of your poem I would change is to have not just the entire last stanza, but the entire poem identically end-rhymed, not with “left,” but with “farce,” or “destruction,” or maybe “the end of the Republic as we know it.” Though I was never a lawyer, my father was, until his sense of justice drove him from its practice in Chicago’s legal swamp of clout and kickbacks, of sheer unjust effrontery. What is most disgusting about this farce is the utter cynicism behind it. Everyone who is involved knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt–DA, judge, Biden and his crony Colangelo, the jurors–that this is a complete perversion of what the practice of law is supposed to achieve, which is justice, for one and all. They know the damage this is going to cause to the law and to the nation, and they don’t give a flying fuck. They know, and they know that everyone knows, that there is no justice in this ruling, only perceived political advantage–clout and a lucrative TV gig for the clown judge (not even a judge, he’s an ACTING judge, who has somehow been assigned to every Trump-associated case in New York) as well as a windfall for his Democrat operative daughter, clout and a reelection talking point for the DA, virtue signaling points for the cowardly jury–the only thing worse than Chicago Democrats is New York Democrats–and of course Biden needs every advantage his senile grifter ass can get right now. The cynical political purpose was to allow every leftwing blatherer on the Democrat news media to crow the phrase “convicted felon Donald Trump” from now until election day, knowing the appeals process will never exonerate him before elction day. They know the voters are on the ropes, near-bankruptcy from Biden’s inflation and faltering economy, fearful and terrified from Biden’s flood of illegal aliens, demoralized from Biden’s utter incompetence at foreign policy. And that in their confusion and despair, which they created, their hope is that the voters can be propagandized by fear of the “felon Trump.” It is utterly, disgustingly, destructively cynical. Never forget, for Trump to succeed where Obama (ahem, Biden, but let’s be real here, we all know who’s pulling Biden’s strings) failed would utterly shatter their worldview, not to mention their hold on power, which is all they care about. They have decided they would rather destroy the rule of law, destroy the Republic, than be proven wrong. I hope Mike is wrong, but with this ruling, the Gulag Archipelago has lurched a titanic step closer. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Adam, for this very detailed comment and analysis of the present situation. I agree with you fully. On the poetry front, those “left” rhymes just kept coming like a train that’s out of control and approaching the station. On the actual implications of what has happened — you paint a very bleak picture which I think is 100% accurate. The powers that perpetrated this sham trial did so for the most cynical of reasons — to try to “get” Donald Trump so that Biden can possibly win four more years. This level of weaponizing our own government against us makes Watergate look like a stroll in a kiddie park. Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover would be proud. And, yes, the book deals and the miniseries and the advancement are all part and parcel of a world now drowning under the weight of its own narcissism. The “bragging” rights of being able to say “convicted felon” Donald Trump is a double-edged sword. Did you see the video clip of Biden smiling demonically when asked a question about what he thinks of the persecution? The mask is off. People can now see him for the senile monster that he is. But we now have the opportunity to refer to DJT as a political prisoner. I suggest we get used to saying that. Political prisoners throughout history have a long and noble lineage, going back to the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel, through to John the Baptist, all the way up through Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. I suggest that DJT is in good company. I also submit that the Democrats have made a mistake of colossal proprotions which they will rue in November. Reply Roy Eugene Peterson June 3, 2024 Brian, this is a fantastic poem that is greatly enhanced by your bio and experience which reveal the machinations of the corrupt in pursuit of those who would best serve out country. From persecution to prosecution is exactly the path they followed in their kangaroo court with their carefully honed charges aided and abetted by exclusion of conservatives and their careful selection of the prosecution team. We have to fight as best we can and now. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Roy, thank you so much for this generous comment. I felt compelled to write this poem because of my legal background because I know that many might be confused as to what is and is not normal in the legal system. The persecution of Donald Trump was not normal. District and City Attorneys are so swamped with real crimes that they do not have the leisure to study arcane documents over lengthy periods of time in the hope of developing a legal theory that might put a political nemesis in prison. That may have been the norm in the Soviet Union or under Mao in China, or in Castro’s Cuba, but — other than the exceptional actions of J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn during the era of Red Scares — that has never been the way justice worked in the USA. The Democrats have crossed the Rubicon and are now normalizing using the government against its own citizens. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and a host of others would be so pleased to see that the American experiment in democracy failed. Reply Warren Bonham June 3, 2024 Great job! I can’t imagine what the reaction would be if the shoe was on the other foot. I guess the point is that it never will be. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much, Warren. As I said in my comment on your poem, I’m glad we’re on the same side! Reply Sally Cook June 3, 2024 I love Donald Trump. My heart bleeds for him, and for all who see the decency and honor he shows to our country and its laws. I pray for him and hope others do the same. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 A heartfelt thank you, Sally. I am still shocked that I too have come to love him. I used to think of him as a political P. T. Barnum. I now think of him as a slightly abrasive uncle who has my best interests at heart. I also think of how all that he’s been through would destroy another man. That Trump can endure all he has endured and still hold his head high and fight is extremely impressive to me. I no longer give a damn about his personal morals (as if I ever had the right to judge.) I see him as an exceedingly effective advocate for the things that I care about. Is he all about ego-gratification? That’s partly what Democrats think, but allowing his darkest qualities to be exposed and ridiculed routinely and at great risk to his personal relationships is a peculiar way of massaging one’s ego. I’m not a mind-reader. I just know I feel safer, more prosperous, more respected and that the world is safer with Trump in the White House. And I know that Joe Biden is demented, the country is being run by an unlawful Obama regency, and everything I care about is being shredded to tatters. Four more years of Biden will destroy this country. So you better believe I pray for Donald Trump! Reply Joshua C. Frank June 3, 2024 Brian, thank you for bringing all this to our attention. I like the abcabc rhymes changing to a monorhyme in the final stanza! It’s so true: “What’s truth if none will hear it?” I’ve come to the conclusion that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is apropos with left-liberals: “They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them… If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.” Reply Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much indeed, Josh. I appreciate your reading of my piece and the views I express within it. With respect to the rhyme scheme, it was not initially selected for any particular reason. However, that last stanza with its repeated “eft” rhymes happened serendipitously and I ran with it because it created an uncontrolled acceleration for me that I really liked. I sometimes do a single rhyme in multiple consecutive lines as a form of poetic “shouting” because there’s something so emphatic and unnatural about it. I also appreciate your insights on the “hearing of truth” line. A terrible aspect of human nature is the self-blinding to truths which are either inconvenient or which fail to support one’s preferred narrative. I wrote a poem recently in which I noted a scientist who would rather alter facts than be bothered to change his thesis. Evidence is no longer to be observed and analyzed. It is either to be spun, ignored or discredited. This brings us full circle to an unstated aspect of this poem: people no longer act as impartial judges and juries. They are now adversarial advocates. This is why no amount of arguing with a leftist matters, or why exposing the lies Hamassholes tell about Israel does no good. These people don’t care about the truth. They care about their narrative. Whatever actual evidence you throw at them will be, as I said, either spun, ignored or discredited. Truth is devolving into what people want it to be. Objectivity itself has become anathema. Except in engineering. People still want safe planes and bridges. But give the liberals more time and I’m sure that will change too. Reply Joshua C. Frank June 4, 2024 Given that pilots are being hired based on race and other DEI criteria rather than qualifications, I’d say that’s already changed. I saw a meme depicting a male-to-female transsexual in a military uniform and holding two rainbow flags. The caption said, “We will never win another war.” I find myself agreeing with that more and more. Brian Yapko June 4, 2024 Once the U.S. Military prioritized DEI over competence, the U.S. lost its ability to fight let alone win a war. Understand, Josh, that I don’t care if a soldier is gay. I care about discarding the whining triage of DEI as a military value when lives and national security are at stake. All the rainbow flags and social justice T-shirts in the world won’t make a good soldier. DEI is a puerile yet politically-charged distraction from the business at hand. I don’t care what color you are. I don’t care who you sleep with. All that matters to me is: a) do you love our country? and b) can you handle a weapon? Joseph S. Salemi June 4, 2024 Amen, Brian. In combat, the only thing that matters about the guy next to you in the trenches is that he is aiming his gun in the same direction that you are. You are also quite correct about the now widespread modern practice of disregarding any fact or evidence that does not fit in with one’s fixed ideological narrative (what the Communists used to call “The Party Line”). This is what animated the infamous “Frankfort School” that invaded American academia in the 1930s, and which is now cemented in place there. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 I’ve never heard of this before, Joe. Thank you for the information which I will now make a point of reading about. I’m always anxious to find out how it is that academia has become poisoned, so this sounds like an important piece of the puzzle. Reply Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Brian, Your poem and your comments are spot on. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (Barak Obama). Eighty years ago, Biden, who is gleefully labeling Trump as a felon, would have been tried and convicted for treason. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 Thank you very much, Brett. That Obama as Biden’s regent appears to be very literally acting out a third term in violation of the Constitution makes this persecution of Trump that much more loathsome. The hypocrisy is thicker than concrete. Eighty years ago would have been the 1940s when patriotism actually meant something. But even 50 years ago Watergate was enough of an abuse to cause a sitting president to resign. What Biden has done is consierably worse than what Nixon did — and now a sitting president not only doesn’t try to hide it but cyncially tries to exploit it. Reply Lannie David Brockstein June 4, 2024 On June 3rd, 2024, Brian A. Yapko wrote: >>> “If conservative posts are not completely deleted, they are nonetheless buried so that few ever get to see them. It’s a terrible dereliction of duty by companies which purport to offer a non-partisan public forum.” ~~~~~ Brian, there are many forms of “shadow banning” used by the Big Tech social media platforms, and what you have described is one of those forms. For more than a decade, the Big Tech social media platforms falsely denied they secretly shadow banned the accounts of conservative users. However, when Elon Musk bought Twitter and then released “The Twitter files”, he proved that was what they did. Does Elon Musk also have to buy the Dominion voting machine company, in order for it to be proven that Dominion’s computer software program that was used to count votes in the US 2020 election, did shadow ban millions of votes cast by conservative voters? From Lannie. Reply Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Lannie, Absolutely true what you shared. Because of the selective and totally biased reporting of the mainstream media, over half of the American public is clueless to what is really taking place. Rightly did the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans chptr. 1:18 condemn “those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 Thank you for this additional information, Lannie, which is terrifying. Technology has created a byzantine web of political, economic and social abuse which, when weighed, seems to me a far greater negative than positive. But the extent to which technology can be abused to rig an election makes me particularly ill. Reply Adam Sedia June 6, 2024 I enjoyed reading another lawyer’s poetic take on the show trial. What else is there to say? Your last verse sums it up. Although I’m not sure how “deft” the lawfare was. Fani Willis and Jack Smith imploded and the Manhattan trial needed to be about as ham-handedly biased as possible to achieve the desired result. Reply Brian A. Yapko June 6, 2024 Thank you, Adam! I agree with you about the clumsiness of Trump’s persecutors. Nonetheless… and unfortunately… “deft” enough to get the conviction they were drooling for. Whether it is affirmed is another matter. My money is on reversal — probably not before the New York Court of Appeal (although you never know) but once it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. But it was never about having a solid conviction as far as I can see. It’s been about Biden’s “bragging rights” to call Trump a convicted felon. Of course, every time I hear the term “convicted felon” I mentally substitute the term “political prisoner.” Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Cheryl Corey June 2, 2024 This has to be the witch hunt of all witch hunts. No one was previously willing to prosecute DJT – not the FEC, not Bragg’s predecessor; not even Bragg himself – until Brandon’s DOJ conspired to send Colangelo to oversee Bragg’s prosecution. Why else does a high-ranking DOJ official effectively take a demotion for a NY state case? Damn them all to hell. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Cheryl, I agree fully — this is the witch hunt of all witch hunts — 100% personality-driven and only because the name of the defendant was Donald Trump. Of course this all emanated from the very top and then trickled down through the swampy halls of the Department of Justice. Though if I had to guess, this sounds like the legalistic strategizing of a Barack Obama — Biden’s eminent gris, unelected regent, the shadow-president who embodies the concept “the end justifies the means.” I see Obama’s fingerprints all over the masterminding of this persecution. And I see Screwtape’s fingerprints all over Obama. With this persecution and a hundred other monumentally bad decisions, has any president besides Obama done greater damage to this country? Cheryl, I am sympathetic to your curse on all those saboteurs of our Republic, known and unknown. In the olden days we would have called them “traitors.” Reply
Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Brian, Your poem and your comments are spot on. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (Barak Obama). Eighty years ago, Biden, who is gleefully labeling Trump as a felon, would have been tried and convicted for treason.
Phil S.Rogers June 2, 2024 Excellent Brian. I believe this trial and verdict have opened the eyes of many people as to how rotten our system of law has become, has strayed from its premise of justice for all and has been weaponized against the average American. Is our republic gone? It certainly is in serious trouble. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much, Phil. I certainly hope you are right. Given the extraordinary amount of donations Trump received in the 48 hours after this Stalinist verdict came down, it really does seem as if people are recognizing at last the socialist Soros-funded liberal fiefdom that our justice system has become. Does our Republic have a future? I’m having a difficult time coming up with a historic corollary of a great nation in decline which yet managed to arrest that decline, avoid collapse and restore the true ideals of its founding. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Peg, I’m so glad this poem spoke to you. Thank you for reading and commenting! Reply
Mike Bryant June 2, 2024 Brian, this is a travesty. You have described the difficult process the prosecutors/persecutors had to follow to frame Trump. But that’s only because they are still feeling their way into tyranny mode. Don’t worry though, soon they will have procedures in place to streamline their war crimes against anyone accused. Having a spat with your girlfriend? No problem. Just call the Traitor Tip Line. The State will be ready to take her away. It’s a lot cheaper to send her to the gulag than to employ her… everyone will be working for the state soon. Those applauding this government overreach don’t realize that they are on the list, too. From “The Gulag Archipelago” Irina Tuchinskaya was arrested while leaving church. (The intention was to arrest their whole family.) And she was charged with having “prayed in church for the death of Stalin.” (Who could have heard that prayer?) Terrorism! Twenty-five years! However, for the most part fantastic accusations were not really required. There existed a very simple standardized collection of charges from which it was enough for the interrogator to pick one or two and stick them like postage stamps on an envelope: * Discrediting the Leader * A negative attitude toward the collective-farm structure * A negative attitude toward state loans (and what normal person could have had a positive attitude!) * A negative attitude toward the Stalinist constitution * A negative attitude toward whatever was the immediate, particular measure being carried out by the Party * Sympathy for Trotsky * Friendliness toward the United States * Etc., etc., etc. If you haven’t read Solzhenitsyn’s book, now is a good time. It’s a frightening look into where this nonsense leads. Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson June 3, 2024 Mike, this is a great contribution and as one who has read the Gulag Archipelago and is steeped in its lore from my study of Russian history and literature, you are completely correct. All the signs are here in our own country now and we have to fight with whatever capabilities we have. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Mike, thank you for this amazing and insightful comment which now has me reeling with even more anxiety. But, of course, that simply means I’m paying attention. Everything you describe imparts the shock of recognition in the most concerning way. As a result, I have ordered “The Gulag Archipelago” and plan to give it priority reading. The idea that our leaders are “feeling their way into tyranny mode” makes sense. It also sounds like excellent source-material for some biting satire, especially with that traitor tip line. “How to Transform a Nation…” something along those lines. Will you accept the challenge? Either way, thank you for this evocative and meaty comment. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi June 2, 2024 This “trial” was the epitome of openly partisan lawfare against a political enemy. Every lawyer to whom I have spoken says that this “conviction” has no more justification or legal standing than a lynching. If Trump had tried to do this against Hillary Clinton in 2017, the Democrats and their mainstream media whores would have screamed like stuck pigs until we were deaf. There really isn’t any sense left in trying to talk to left-liberals. We should just treat them as human vermin. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Joe, I also know of no lawyers who respect 1) the D.A. for bringing this case; 2) the judge who put not a finger but a fist on the scale in favor of conviction; and 3) the jury which spent 20 minutes (at most) on each of these 34 counts. It would not shock me to learn that extrajudicial pressure was put on the jurors to vote for conviction, but that is pure speculation. It is equally likely that they, like the D.A. and judge, were simply anxious to “get” Trump no matter what, and on any theory. The case is thick with instances of reversible error but the appellate court won’t get to this before the election. Which is all they cared about at the trial level. Every time they refer to Trump they want the bragging rights of saying “convicted felon.” Well, I think that every time we refer to Trump we should say “political prisoner.” Reply
Joshua C. Frank June 3, 2024 I’ve come to the same conclusion as you have. We have no real common ground with them, as even they admit. Reply
Susan Jarvis Bryant June 2, 2024 Brian, thank you very much indeed for saying it as it is in an educative, engaging, eloquent, and passionate poem at a time we need it most. The fact that you “have been a lawyer for a long, long time /And seen a lot of things that shouldn’t be” adds gravitas to every word… and every word of this should be heard by all and heeded before justice in America can’t be pulled back from the brink. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Susan, for this generous comment. I had started a poem on “the day after” but yours was so good I did not feel it necessary. And I couldn’t pull two thoughts together to do it. But as the days rolled along I felt that I had a unique perspective since I have some legal experience under my belt. There’s a world of difference between prosecuting someone who has committed a crime and killed or hurt someone versus a victimless crime based on a bookkeeping technicality which no one had awareness of until the intense research to “get him on any theory” was engaged. Criminal cases usually use microscopes to assess DNA and blood stains — not the potential political vulnerabilities of presidential candidates (although there’s a case to be made that J. Edgar Hoover acted thus. And there is that nagging question about who made enemies of JFK.) Can justice in America be pulled back from the brink? I don’t know. How do you drain a swamp when there’s no place left for the water to go? Reply
Yael June 2, 2024 Well said Brian! You sum it up very well. JP Sears has a video out which shows how they came up with the charges in the Trump trial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l8SzsKN7KA Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Yael! This video is great! In fact, after watching it and getting a good laugh out of an anxiety-inducing subject I have gone ahead and subscribed to this Youtube channel. As long as we can face the horrors of this world with satire and a laugh now and then there is hope. It means there are still people out there who have their heads screwed on and are paying attention. Reply
Margaret Coats June 2, 2024 Brian, this reminds me that you have written another poem, “Reflections on a Visit to Salem,” where you speak of “spectral guilt” and “the hunger to accuse” in the Salem witch trials. At Salem as well, there was no evidence of crime and no victim of criminal activity. And today, most Americans could not say what offense “the once and future leader of this land” was convicted of. That line is a fine hopeful touch to this poem–true even if another election should be stolen by means of this and other trials. While the genesis of this criminal case is appalling, far more so is the genesis of the verdict. Not only was a “crime” created from nothing existing in law, but a verdict was manufactured by careful manipulation in the choice of judge and jury. Proper oversight and instructions by the judge, or attention and self-respect manifested by even one juror, should have vindicated our heritage of the jury from English law. This has occurred in numerous cases of far less import. Here, however, the venue and other troublous incidents and statements inspired no confidence. Rather, they demonstrated the verdict was a foregone conclusion owing nothing to legal procedures designed to safeguard justice. As you point out, this prosecution is intended to “silence” the people and prevent their free choice of a leader. In that sense it is a “hush money” action, attempting to pay people and leader to remain silent. But although “no disclosure” agreements are perfectly legal, no one has an obligation to accept them. Let us hope this “hush money” verdict does not silence the people, as it has not silenced the leader who is its target. Reply
Lannie David Brockstein June 3, 2024 On June 2nd, 2024, Margaret Coats wrote: >>> “And today, most Americans could not say what offense “the once and future leader of this land” was convicted of.” ~~~~~ Margaret, that is also an apt description of what has been happening for more than a decade at the Big Tech social media platforms, where millions of users (including President Trump) have been “canceled” for having “violated community standards”, but without those supposed standards having been defined by those companies that pretend their own arbitrary and self-serving standards are the community’s standards. From Lannie. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Lannie, I’ve noticed what you describe concerning social media platforms which mercilessly censor conservative points of view. If conservative posts are not completely deleted, they are nonetheless buried so that few ever get to see them. It’s a terrible dereliction of duty by companies which purport to offer a non-partisan public forum.
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much indeed, Margaret — especially for connecting this poem to my “Salem” poem from a couple of years back. That “spectral guilt” and “hunger to accuse” are very much alive and well in 2024. Interestingly, though, unlike the D.A., judge and jury in this case, I’m not sure that the young girls who accused so many Salemites of being witches did so for cynical reasons as has been done with Donald Trump. As I recall the history, theirs was a mob mentality which was not political in ambition (although social/financial jealousy was a factor.) That being said that Salem mob mentality does exist today: the modern corollary would probably be the woke mob who seem to lust for Donald Trump’s blood (“put him in jail!”) No rational person presented with the identical facts of this case in which the defendant was John Smith Doe would give a darn about it, let alone care about jail time or other punishment. This is all very personal indeed concerning one man who happens to be a presidential candidate. What you are describing as “hush money” — to silence our chosen candidate for president — is absolutely brilliant. You should turn that into a poem! Reply
Adam Wasem June 3, 2024 Brian, I truly appreciate your trying to put into words just how much of a catastrophe of the law this “judgement” is. The only element of your poem I would change is to have not just the entire last stanza, but the entire poem identically end-rhymed, not with “left,” but with “farce,” or “destruction,” or maybe “the end of the Republic as we know it.” Though I was never a lawyer, my father was, until his sense of justice drove him from its practice in Chicago’s legal swamp of clout and kickbacks, of sheer unjust effrontery. What is most disgusting about this farce is the utter cynicism behind it. Everyone who is involved knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt–DA, judge, Biden and his crony Colangelo, the jurors–that this is a complete perversion of what the practice of law is supposed to achieve, which is justice, for one and all. They know the damage this is going to cause to the law and to the nation, and they don’t give a flying fuck. They know, and they know that everyone knows, that there is no justice in this ruling, only perceived political advantage–clout and a lucrative TV gig for the clown judge (not even a judge, he’s an ACTING judge, who has somehow been assigned to every Trump-associated case in New York) as well as a windfall for his Democrat operative daughter, clout and a reelection talking point for the DA, virtue signaling points for the cowardly jury–the only thing worse than Chicago Democrats is New York Democrats–and of course Biden needs every advantage his senile grifter ass can get right now. The cynical political purpose was to allow every leftwing blatherer on the Democrat news media to crow the phrase “convicted felon Donald Trump” from now until election day, knowing the appeals process will never exonerate him before elction day. They know the voters are on the ropes, near-bankruptcy from Biden’s inflation and faltering economy, fearful and terrified from Biden’s flood of illegal aliens, demoralized from Biden’s utter incompetence at foreign policy. And that in their confusion and despair, which they created, their hope is that the voters can be propagandized by fear of the “felon Trump.” It is utterly, disgustingly, destructively cynical. Never forget, for Trump to succeed where Obama (ahem, Biden, but let’s be real here, we all know who’s pulling Biden’s strings) failed would utterly shatter their worldview, not to mention their hold on power, which is all they care about. They have decided they would rather destroy the rule of law, destroy the Republic, than be proven wrong. I hope Mike is wrong, but with this ruling, the Gulag Archipelago has lurched a titanic step closer. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you, Adam, for this very detailed comment and analysis of the present situation. I agree with you fully. On the poetry front, those “left” rhymes just kept coming like a train that’s out of control and approaching the station. On the actual implications of what has happened — you paint a very bleak picture which I think is 100% accurate. The powers that perpetrated this sham trial did so for the most cynical of reasons — to try to “get” Donald Trump so that Biden can possibly win four more years. This level of weaponizing our own government against us makes Watergate look like a stroll in a kiddie park. Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover would be proud. And, yes, the book deals and the miniseries and the advancement are all part and parcel of a world now drowning under the weight of its own narcissism. The “bragging” rights of being able to say “convicted felon” Donald Trump is a double-edged sword. Did you see the video clip of Biden smiling demonically when asked a question about what he thinks of the persecution? The mask is off. People can now see him for the senile monster that he is. But we now have the opportunity to refer to DJT as a political prisoner. I suggest we get used to saying that. Political prisoners throughout history have a long and noble lineage, going back to the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel, through to John the Baptist, all the way up through Mohandas Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. I suggest that DJT is in good company. I also submit that the Democrats have made a mistake of colossal proprotions which they will rue in November. Reply
Roy Eugene Peterson June 3, 2024 Brian, this is a fantastic poem that is greatly enhanced by your bio and experience which reveal the machinations of the corrupt in pursuit of those who would best serve out country. From persecution to prosecution is exactly the path they followed in their kangaroo court with their carefully honed charges aided and abetted by exclusion of conservatives and their careful selection of the prosecution team. We have to fight as best we can and now. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Roy, thank you so much for this generous comment. I felt compelled to write this poem because of my legal background because I know that many might be confused as to what is and is not normal in the legal system. The persecution of Donald Trump was not normal. District and City Attorneys are so swamped with real crimes that they do not have the leisure to study arcane documents over lengthy periods of time in the hope of developing a legal theory that might put a political nemesis in prison. That may have been the norm in the Soviet Union or under Mao in China, or in Castro’s Cuba, but — other than the exceptional actions of J. Edgar Hoover and Roy Cohn during the era of Red Scares — that has never been the way justice worked in the USA. The Democrats have crossed the Rubicon and are now normalizing using the government against its own citizens. Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and a host of others would be so pleased to see that the American experiment in democracy failed. Reply
Warren Bonham June 3, 2024 Great job! I can’t imagine what the reaction would be if the shoe was on the other foot. I guess the point is that it never will be. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much, Warren. As I said in my comment on your poem, I’m glad we’re on the same side! Reply
Sally Cook June 3, 2024 I love Donald Trump. My heart bleeds for him, and for all who see the decency and honor he shows to our country and its laws. I pray for him and hope others do the same. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 A heartfelt thank you, Sally. I am still shocked that I too have come to love him. I used to think of him as a political P. T. Barnum. I now think of him as a slightly abrasive uncle who has my best interests at heart. I also think of how all that he’s been through would destroy another man. That Trump can endure all he has endured and still hold his head high and fight is extremely impressive to me. I no longer give a damn about his personal morals (as if I ever had the right to judge.) I see him as an exceedingly effective advocate for the things that I care about. Is he all about ego-gratification? That’s partly what Democrats think, but allowing his darkest qualities to be exposed and ridiculed routinely and at great risk to his personal relationships is a peculiar way of massaging one’s ego. I’m not a mind-reader. I just know I feel safer, more prosperous, more respected and that the world is safer with Trump in the White House. And I know that Joe Biden is demented, the country is being run by an unlawful Obama regency, and everything I care about is being shredded to tatters. Four more years of Biden will destroy this country. So you better believe I pray for Donald Trump! Reply
Joshua C. Frank June 3, 2024 Brian, thank you for bringing all this to our attention. I like the abcabc rhymes changing to a monorhyme in the final stanza! It’s so true: “What’s truth if none will hear it?” I’ve come to the conclusion that the parable of the rich man and Lazarus is apropos with left-liberals: “They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them… If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they believe, if one rise again from the dead.” Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 3, 2024 Thank you very much indeed, Josh. I appreciate your reading of my piece and the views I express within it. With respect to the rhyme scheme, it was not initially selected for any particular reason. However, that last stanza with its repeated “eft” rhymes happened serendipitously and I ran with it because it created an uncontrolled acceleration for me that I really liked. I sometimes do a single rhyme in multiple consecutive lines as a form of poetic “shouting” because there’s something so emphatic and unnatural about it. I also appreciate your insights on the “hearing of truth” line. A terrible aspect of human nature is the self-blinding to truths which are either inconvenient or which fail to support one’s preferred narrative. I wrote a poem recently in which I noted a scientist who would rather alter facts than be bothered to change his thesis. Evidence is no longer to be observed and analyzed. It is either to be spun, ignored or discredited. This brings us full circle to an unstated aspect of this poem: people no longer act as impartial judges and juries. They are now adversarial advocates. This is why no amount of arguing with a leftist matters, or why exposing the lies Hamassholes tell about Israel does no good. These people don’t care about the truth. They care about their narrative. Whatever actual evidence you throw at them will be, as I said, either spun, ignored or discredited. Truth is devolving into what people want it to be. Objectivity itself has become anathema. Except in engineering. People still want safe planes and bridges. But give the liberals more time and I’m sure that will change too. Reply
Joshua C. Frank June 4, 2024 Given that pilots are being hired based on race and other DEI criteria rather than qualifications, I’d say that’s already changed. I saw a meme depicting a male-to-female transsexual in a military uniform and holding two rainbow flags. The caption said, “We will never win another war.” I find myself agreeing with that more and more.
Brian Yapko June 4, 2024 Once the U.S. Military prioritized DEI over competence, the U.S. lost its ability to fight let alone win a war. Understand, Josh, that I don’t care if a soldier is gay. I care about discarding the whining triage of DEI as a military value when lives and national security are at stake. All the rainbow flags and social justice T-shirts in the world won’t make a good soldier. DEI is a puerile yet politically-charged distraction from the business at hand. I don’t care what color you are. I don’t care who you sleep with. All that matters to me is: a) do you love our country? and b) can you handle a weapon?
Joseph S. Salemi June 4, 2024 Amen, Brian. In combat, the only thing that matters about the guy next to you in the trenches is that he is aiming his gun in the same direction that you are. You are also quite correct about the now widespread modern practice of disregarding any fact or evidence that does not fit in with one’s fixed ideological narrative (what the Communists used to call “The Party Line”). This is what animated the infamous “Frankfort School” that invaded American academia in the 1930s, and which is now cemented in place there. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 I’ve never heard of this before, Joe. Thank you for the information which I will now make a point of reading about. I’m always anxious to find out how it is that academia has become poisoned, so this sounds like an important piece of the puzzle. Reply
Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Brian, Your poem and your comments are spot on. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain (Barak Obama). Eighty years ago, Biden, who is gleefully labeling Trump as a felon, would have been tried and convicted for treason. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 Thank you very much, Brett. That Obama as Biden’s regent appears to be very literally acting out a third term in violation of the Constitution makes this persecution of Trump that much more loathsome. The hypocrisy is thicker than concrete. Eighty years ago would have been the 1940s when patriotism actually meant something. But even 50 years ago Watergate was enough of an abuse to cause a sitting president to resign. What Biden has done is consierably worse than what Nixon did — and now a sitting president not only doesn’t try to hide it but cyncially tries to exploit it. Reply
Lannie David Brockstein June 4, 2024 On June 3rd, 2024, Brian A. Yapko wrote: >>> “If conservative posts are not completely deleted, they are nonetheless buried so that few ever get to see them. It’s a terrible dereliction of duty by companies which purport to offer a non-partisan public forum.” ~~~~~ Brian, there are many forms of “shadow banning” used by the Big Tech social media platforms, and what you have described is one of those forms. For more than a decade, the Big Tech social media platforms falsely denied they secretly shadow banned the accounts of conservative users. However, when Elon Musk bought Twitter and then released “The Twitter files”, he proved that was what they did. Does Elon Musk also have to buy the Dominion voting machine company, in order for it to be proven that Dominion’s computer software program that was used to count votes in the US 2020 election, did shadow ban millions of votes cast by conservative voters? From Lannie. Reply
Brett Dickinson June 4, 2024 Lannie, Absolutely true what you shared. Because of the selective and totally biased reporting of the mainstream media, over half of the American public is clueless to what is really taking place. Rightly did the Apostle Paul in the book of Romans chptr. 1:18 condemn “those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness”. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 4, 2024 Thank you for this additional information, Lannie, which is terrifying. Technology has created a byzantine web of political, economic and social abuse which, when weighed, seems to me a far greater negative than positive. But the extent to which technology can be abused to rig an election makes me particularly ill. Reply
Adam Sedia June 6, 2024 I enjoyed reading another lawyer’s poetic take on the show trial. What else is there to say? Your last verse sums it up. Although I’m not sure how “deft” the lawfare was. Fani Willis and Jack Smith imploded and the Manhattan trial needed to be about as ham-handedly biased as possible to achieve the desired result. Reply
Brian A. Yapko June 6, 2024 Thank you, Adam! I agree with you about the clumsiness of Trump’s persecutors. Nonetheless… and unfortunately… “deft” enough to get the conviction they were drooling for. Whether it is affirmed is another matter. My money is on reversal — probably not before the New York Court of Appeal (although you never know) but once it reaches the U.S. Supreme Court. But it was never about having a solid conviction as far as I can see. It’s been about Biden’s “bragging rights” to call Trump a convicted felon. Of course, every time I hear the term “convicted felon” I mentally substitute the term “political prisoner.” Reply
