Former President Donald Trump’s trial was a farce. Here is why

Shuwaski Young — a media darling and failed candidate for statewide office in Mississippi — recently wrote a piece in this paper criticizing me, along with others, for standing by former-President Donald Trump.

There are a mountain of policy reasons conservatives support Trump. Under Trump, our border was secure, our economy was the best in American history, and we had a president who would stand up to criminals (at home and abroad) and keep us safe.

Under President Joseph Biden, we have a president who seems to not know what day it is.

But for the moment I’ll put that policy discussion aside, because Young focuses his criticism on conservatives’ support for Trump after the so-called “hush money” trial. Young even mentions Trump’s “34 felonies” three times in his short piece.

Mississippi Democrats’ strategy is clear: keep yelling “34 felonies!” into the wind and maybe they’ll win the election. (Good luck with that, by the way. I think you’ll have as much luck as you had electing a Californian like Young to office here.)

Here’s why conservatives, normal people, and anyone else with a brain are not persuaded by the liberals screaming “felonies!”: anyone reasonable looking at the “hush money” trial realizes Trump was unfairly targeted.

First, let’s take the timing. Prosecutors said Trump tried to conceal an affair he allegedly had back in 2006 with hush money payments in 2017. The statute of limitations — the law that requires that charges be filed within a certain time after an act is done — had long run out in this case. For years, no prosecutor wanted to charge this as a crime until Alvin Bragg came along. And then, almost immediately after Trump declared his candidacy for president for this year’s election, Bragg brought these charges. It smacks of politics.

Second, take the charges. As Trump has stated, no one has been charged in New York with this charge, “falsification of records,” as a standalone felony until now. Only at the very end of the case did the prosecution tell the court what their actual case was, that the “falsified” records were allegedly concealing a federal campaign finance violation. But Trump has never been charged by federal authorities with this campaign finance violation. The prosecutors were basically doing legal gymnastics that had never been done in a New York courtroom before.

Finally, look at the evidence that was allowed. Trump had an expert witness that was set to testify that the alleged underlying campaign finance violation wasn’t even a violation at all. But the judge refused to allow this critical testimony. On the other side, prosecutors used Michael Cohen, a convicted liar and self-avowed thief, as their central witness, and that was allowed.

Young will say, “but a jury convicted him!” But that ignores the fact that a jury never should have heard this case in the first place. Once the case did go to trial, the jury should have been allowed to hear critical testimony from Trump’s expert witness.

Mississippi Democrats are soft on every crime in the book, always fighting to kill stronger penalties for crimes in our state, but all of a sudden when Trump is the defendant they become hard-nosed. It doesn’t pass the smell test.

In short, Americans don’t feel this trial — led by a judge who was a donor to Biden — was fair. God willing, though, the election in November will be.

— Shad White is the 42^nd state auditor of Mississippi.