The criminal justice system is supposed to operate impartially, devoid of political motivations — but New Jersey’s latest maneuver regarding former President Donald Trump’s liquor licenses should serve as a wake-up call.
The Garden State has taken the baton from New York in what critics call a legal crusade to bring down the former president, no matter how tenuous the grounds or attenuated the logic.
In the wake of Trump’s convictiosn last month on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the Stormy Daniels saga, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin, a Democrat, has announced a review on whether to revoke the liquor licenses at three of Trump’s golf courses in the Garden State: Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia, Trump National Golf Club Colts Neck and Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.
To backers of Trump like attorney Jonathan Turley warned, this move reeks of the very politicization and “lawfare” that previously drew rebukes when perpetrated by New York prosecutors like Alvin Bragg and Letitia James.
Platkin cited a statute prohibiting liquor licenses for those convicted of “crimes of moral turpitude” – an archaic standard better suited to Victorian England than modern America.
Even still, falsifying business records, while unethical, does not constitute an act of “baseness, vileness, or depravity” that violates core societal duties, Turley recently argued.
But just as Alvin Bragg showed his determination to bend the law to get Trump convicted, Platkin also appears willing violate longstanding legal norms as part of an ongoing vendetta against the former president.
In doing so, he risks setting a risky precedent in the Democrat-dominated state — the latest Democratic controlled legal system looking to join New York against Trump.
For Trump’s supporters, the message is hardly subtle – that no matter the offense or triviality, the machinery of the state will be used to hound him and his backers through perpetual prosecution.
Meanwhile, Trump’s political rivals seem to find pleasure in each new line crossed, norm breached, and legal procedure perverted in their quest to get the former president.