Supporters and detractors of former President Donald Trump took formation in their respective lines, some salivating and others seething at the news that Trump was facing indictment for offering “hush money” to a porn star.
Opinion
Legal experts on both sides admit that the charges are trivial and will serve no other purpose than the public seeing, for the first time, the mugshot of a former president published in the newspaper; it also appears to be something Trump himself wants to see happen so as to make him a victim in the eyes of his supporters.
All of this is a political theater performance that has groaned beyond the fifth act.
While Trump has faced investigations, impeachment and now possible indictment, his political nemesis, Hillary Clinton, has so far skated through investigations where it was proven she destroyed government hardware and kept an illegal server in her bathroom.
The Clinton Foundation quietly folded up operations amid allegations of fraud and money laundering and disappeared from the headlines.
Lest we forget, though, former President Bill Clinton faced two terms in which every business deal he was ever involved with was scrutinized with an electron microscope.
When Special Prosecutor Kenneth Starr unveiled his long-awaited tome, which cost taxpayers multiple millions of dollars, the public eagerly lined up, expecting to be shown the smoking gun only to be presented with an unlit cigar.
It is no wonder Richard Nixon was so paranoid.
Selective prosecution happens here locally, too. It is likely that the Georgia Attorney General will never lift a finger to investigate former Mayor Hardie Davis Jr. even though bank records clearly show money was misappropriated from a charity bank account.
The bottom line is that Davis is a minnow in the political sea, and unless investigating his shenanigans is politically advantageous to the establishment, then no investigation will ever occur.
Former State Senator and Minority Leader Charles Walker was not a minnow when he was netted and thrown into federal prison for a decade.
Curiously, Walker was convicted on charges that were considered routine business for most people in politics at the time.
Some small newspapers do inflate their circulation to advertisers, though others submit to (and pay for) annual audits from the Audit Bureau of Circulation. After all, a publication sitting in a restaurant lobby or doctor’s office was likely to be viewed by more than one pair of eyes.
It was Walker’s arrogance that led him brazenly to inflate his paper’s numbers, and he never even attempted to destroy the evidence.
It was also common at the time to see brown bags filled with stacks of Benjamins being passed off at golf outings, fish fries, barbeques and, yes, charity football events. The evidence presented in Walker’s trial was flimsy at best, and the money trail went in so many different directions that even a forensic accountant would have trouble untangling it all.
Now, I am not taking up for Walker. He was corrupt, and a jury of his peers sent him to prison where he served his time. However, I will posit that if Walker had not been rumored to be a front-running candidate for a future run for governor, he likely would not have brought on the wrath and full weight of the federal government down on himself.
Even in Columbia County there is a history of selective prosecution based on the direction of the political winds.
Former Mayor of Harlem and Columbia County Commissioner Scott Dean was a rising star in the Republican Party. Dean, a handsome and charismatic, yet self-effacing politician was praised when he and his wife adopted five children from Guatemala.
The children that would be the key in bringing Dean down.
Dean’s Achilles Heel was his propensity to womanize, and he was known to show up to events and party like a frat boy. Dean also had a tendency to run his mouth, which trampled on nerves throughout the county.
Not only could Dean get caught and bring shame on the Republican Party, his freewheeling mouth could expose others and their bedroom secrets.
Something had to be done.
When Dean was caught engaging in an affair with a county worker, the local political machine went to work.
One of Dean’s adopted children came forward and accused him of molestation. While the girl only spoke broken English and had a history of lying, including falsely accusing her biological father with molestation, it did not matter, and an army of child psychologists, guardian ad litems and lawyers descended.
Dean was found guilty and sentenced to the maximum of 20 years. He remains in prison today.
After the trial, the girl came forward and recanted her entire testimony and stated that she was “coached” by her handlers. The naive child said that she was angry because the Deans made her and her siblings work in the family’s bed and breakfast, and so she concocted the story with the help of others.
Meanwhile, longtime Columbia County Tax Commissioner Kay Allen found herself in hot water and cruising toward a possible indictment when it was discovered she was finding clever ways to pay herself far more than her county salary allowed.
In 2007, the law was changed to prevent tax commissioners from charging extra fees to municipalities inside of a county, and it was alleged that Allen ignored the law and kept taking the payments, using some of the money to conduct renovations on her house.
An editorial in the Augusta Chronicle in 2014 stated plainly: “It is clear that she used the position to enrich herself at the cost of the taxpayers.”
Allen, who was married to a Columbia County commissioner at the time and enjoyed a friendship with then Commission Chairman Ron Cross, resigned and the matter simply evaporated.
Selective prosecution is anathema to the rule of law. The justice system should never be used as a weapon or a political tool, whether on the national level or in the local political playground.
Those who engage in this should be wary that the sword they wield could eventually be turned on themselves. Maximilien François de Robespierre found that out the hard way over 200 years ago when he was beheaded by his own Guillotine.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
