14 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 6-12, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com Court Rules Donald Trump was convicted because of democracy— not in spite of it, despite what he claims. By John Nichols FORUM Immediately after his historically unprecedented conviction on 34 charges of falsifying business records, Donald J. Trump tried to suggest that the jury’s decision was an affront to democracy. “The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5 by the people. And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here,” said the presumptive Republican nominee for president of the United States, before he ripped into the prosecutor who brought the case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. “You have a Soros-backed DA and the whole thing. We didn’t do anything wrong. I’m a very innocent man.” As usual, Trump got it wrong. Trump was not convicted in spite of democracy. He was convicted because of democracy. Bragg pursued Trump as an elected prosecutor, a popularly chosen law enforcement officer who did the job that voters assigned him. Bragg did not obtain his position in a backroom deal. He was elected in a competitive eight-way Democratic primary, defeating veteran local, state and federal prosecutors, a civil rights attorney, a legislator and a public defender. On the basis of his experience, Bragg ran as the candidate who was ready and willing to hold the wealthy and the powerful, including when necessary former presidents, to account. He reminded voters that, as a state prosecutor, “I have sued Trump over 100 times. I can’t change that fact, nor would I. That was important work.” Bragg kept the promise that he made as a candidate to pursue equal justice under the law. Trump regularly claimed that the Manhattan district attorney was nothing more than a stooge of liberal billionaire George Soros, who has in recent years supported efforts to elect supporters of criminal justice reform to prosecutor positions across the country. But Soros explained in 2023 that he had never met Bragg, nor earmarked direct campaign contributions to the DA’s 2021 campaign. Trump’s attacks on Bragg, who is Black, and Soros, who is Jewish, were so persistent, and so ugly, that Magda Teter, a professor of history and the chair in Judaic Studies at Fordham University, observed: “With these attacks, Trump and his supporters, including Trump-supporting media outlets, tapped into deep-rooted antisemitic and racist ideas of Jewish power and Black gullibility, thus connecting antisemitism and racism.” Trump allies in Congress, led by House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan of Ohio, accused Bragg of neglecting the work of prosecuting street crime in order to pursue “a radical political agenda.” The political pressure has been intense. Yet Bragg is, at least to some extent, insulated from that pressure—he does not report to the White House or to Jim Jordan. Bragg is an elected district attorney, who respects his duty to uphold the rule of law, and the voters who put him in a position to hold the powerful to account. That, despite what Trump suggests, is not an assault on the will of the people. It is the very essence of democracy. John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation, where this story first appeared. OPINION Alvin Bragg kept the promise he made as a candidate. CLEAN AIR INCENTIVES LANDSCAPE EQUIPMENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM Incentives for replacement of old, working, polluting lawn and garden equipment with zero-emission, battery-electric equipment (e.g. lawn mowers or leaf blowers). MBARD.ORG | 831.647.9411 WOOD STOVE CHANGE-OUT PROGRAM Incentives are available to replace non-EPA certified wood stoves, fireplace inserts, or open-hearth fireplaces with a low smoke emitting, certified wood or pellet stove, fireplace insert, electric stove/insert, or ductless mini-split heat pump. Low-income qualified applicants and applicants in low-income or disadvantaged communities can receive up to DOUBLE THE INCENTIVE AMOUNT. 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