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A few years ago, I was asked to defend a prominent Republican elected official who was the target of a Democratic county attorney.
She is seeking reelection and has been indicted by county prosecutors on charges of misusing public funds.
The timing of the indictment, the county attorney's comments, and the questionable allegations lead us to conclude that this is nothing more than a political prosecution. The indictment came too close to the election, too late for Republicans to field another candidate.
The prosecutor can be heard saying, “We don't need to convict her, we just need to indict her.”
The allegations themselves were weakly substantiated and not adequately investigated.
We always felt this was a political prosecution to stop Republicans from being re-elected and to put Democrats in their place.
Our client refused to view the prosecution as political and would not allow anyone else to do so.
Even state Republican Party leaders refrained from jumping into the fray or criticizing the county attorney.
Former President Trump's conviction
On Thursday of this week, former President Donald Trump was convicted by a 12-judge New York state jury of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
I am disheartened when I read the misleading comments made by local elected officials about the recent prosecution of Trump, especially when they come from a local politician who is also a lawyer.
Senator Mike Lee, once a supposedly brilliant lawyer, called it a “political prosecution to help Joe Biden.”
Lee added: “I don't respect the verdict, and nobody should.”
Representative Celeste Malloy of Utah is another prominent attorney.
“In this case, the justice system was used to keep President Trump from voting. This was a matter of politics, not law, from the start,” she said.
The rule of law still exists in this case.
What these lawyers and others seem to forget is the so-called rule of law.
This is one of the first things we're taught in law school. They forget that Trump exercised his constitutional right to a jury trial.
The judge did not decide the case; the 12 jurors did.
And the jury was selected by agreement between the prosecution and Trump's own lawyers.
They forget that at the beginning of the trial, these 12 jurors were instructed that the former president was presumed innocent.
They forget that the 12 jurors were sworn in to follow the law, which states that the burden of proof in the case is on the prosecution. They were instructed that Trump did not have to prove anything.
These lawyers forget that in order to convict a former president, all 12 jurors had to unanimously agree that his guilt was beyond a reasonable doubt.
It's called the rule of law, and it makes the American legal system the best and most fair in the world.
Disappointing response
So, certainly, after 42 years as a practicing lawyer, it would be deeply disappointing to me to hear other lawyers make false and defamatory statements about jury verdicts in our nation's courts in 2024. Such statements undermine public confidence in the judicial system that was the product of our Constitutional Framers.
There are far better ways to prove that the prosecution is wrong and “political.”
My Republican client has known that for years, and she demanded a speedy public jury trial to show the prosecutor and the rest of the state of Utah how wrong the prosecution was.
She was acquitted of all charges.
Greg Skordas is a legal analyst for KSL NewsRadio and host of KSL at Night.
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