- GREGG JARRETT WEBSITE - GREGG JARRETT - MAY 18, 2022 -
If a Democrat Party activist is dead-bang guilty of a crime, where would he want the case against him tried? Hands down, it’s Washington DC. Jurors there are overwhelmingly liberal and routinely treat Republicans as if they all belong in a leper colony.
Clinton Campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann is counting on that political bias to…ahem… trump his dire legal reality. Special counsel John Durham has marshaled a compelling case that the defendant lied about his client when he peddled phony evidence to the FBI that Donald Trump colluded with Russia. But getting the jury to see beyond their partisan blinders will be a herculean challenge for the prosecution. Even if they do see it, will they follow the law? Don’t count on it.
The criminal trial opened on Monday in the DC federal court with jury selection. For Sussmann, picking a favorably predisposed panel is like a rigged carnival game. Good luck Durham. He’s not battling a lame defense so much as fighting the phenomenon known as “jury nullification” where twelve citizens perversely choose to ignore obvious guilt to acquit the accused. In the nation’s capital, jurors have refused to convict simply out of spite or their own prejudices. Jurors have the unfettered power to do as they please.
This is precisely why the defense has asked the presiding judge to advise the jury that the defendant was working against Trump. The Honorable Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, doesn’t really need to say it. Sussmann’s lead lawyer will make sure that it’s drilled into their brains the moment he addresses the jury during opening statements. He may as well come out and say, “If you hate Trump –and I’m sure that all of you intelligent jurors do– then you must vote not guilty.”
That will be the not-so-subtle incendiary message being conveyed throughout the trial. Count on it. Because unabashed fear and loathing of conservatives among Washington’s 700,000 residents is endemic. Registered Republicans there are an endangered species. You’d have a better chance spotting a unicorn.
In the last presidential election, 92 percent voted for Joe Biden. A scant 5 percent cast ballots for Trump, but I doubt they’d ever admit to it publicly. That would be heresy in DC. You’d find yourself tethered to a post with the smoky scent of kindling wafting through the air.
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