Blaming the courts for Trump verdict is cheap politics

Back when Congress was taken seriously, threats to disrupt government policies or punish states and federal agencies for doing their jobs would have been big news.

Now, furious warnings of partisan retaliation for former President Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts are seen, correctly, as predictable election-year bloviating by Republicans anxious to one-up each other in demonstrating puppy-like devotion to their party’s soon-to-be nominee. Fortunately, Trump and his GOP sycophants can only threaten political reprisal — at least, at this point.

After Inauguration Day in January, they might be able to carry out some of those get-even plans.

For now it’s politically expedient for Trump allies to thunder from the pulpits of House and Senate pressrooms about a “rigged” system. But it’s not good for a judicial branch needing public confidence that everyone is equal before the law.

Soon after a New York jury delivered its verdict on Trump, more than a dozen U.S. senators — Republicans, naturally — swore political vengeance. They said they’ll effectively stop congressional action on, well, just about anything important. Not that Congress had been accomplishing a whole lot already.

“The White House has made a mockery of the rule of law and fundamentally altered our politics in un-American ways. As a Senate Republican conference, we are unwilling to aid and abet this White House in its project to tear this country apart,” eight senators wrote to the White House. A few more signed on to the protest within a couple days.

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“To that end, we will not 1) allow any increase in non-security related funding for this administration, or any appropriations bill which funds partisan lawfare; 2) vote to confirm this administration’s political and judicial appointees; and 3) allow expedited consideration and passage of Democrat legislation or authorities that are not relevant to the safety of the American people,” the missive continued.

Florida’s Republican senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, were among members signing onto the threat.

Across the Capitol, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called Trump’s conviction an emergency and said the U.S. Supreme Court should intervene with some sort of reprieve. That would certainly be a novel approach to appellate law — why wait for Trump’s petition to wend its way through lower courts when the justices could just reach down and scoop up this one because this guy is special.

And never mind that “Equal Justice Under the Law” inscription above the high court’s portico.

One Florida state lawmaker proposed banning state employees from traveling to the Big Apple for official business — an economic boycott to show those Yankees they can’t treat Palm Beach County’s most famous resident like that.

Hey, maybe both sides should have pre-emptive pardons. New York could let Trump go and the feds would drop Hunter Biden’s charges. The two trials have some similarities, as neither man would be in court except for his famous name and nobody ever goes to trial on the kind of stuff they did.

Taking the GOP senators’ letter seriously is like tying your shoe while walking. It probably can be done if you’re willing to assume a ridiculous position and accomplish next to nothing.

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Scott fancies himself the next Senate GOP leader and Rubio could be on Trump’s vice-presidential list, and both went to law school. But they might really think the White House “has made a mockery of the rule of law” in Trump’s case. Still, there’s no proof of Joe Biden’s involvement — except that Trump says so.

As for blocking judicial appointments or major legislation, the summer congressional recess and political conventions are not far off. So there won’t be a whole lot of important business done before the elections.

Of course Trump’s trials are political. So is Hunter Biden’s trial, and those of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who are facing various charges. These are political people, and politics colors everything they do, everything done to them.

Bill Cotterell is a retired capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Stop blaming courts for verdict you don't like. That's cheap politics.