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I agree that's a possibility. Another possibility is that the prosecutor simply thinks it's abuse of office to engage in politically-motivated retaliation. Even if the prosecution is in retaliation for something that itself was abusive.
Also, even if the prosecutor is not worried about being brought up on trumped-up charges down the road, he still might worry about damage to his reputation. It's very common for former federal prosecutors to end up with high-paying jobs at fancy law firms. Having been the person who prosecuted Letitia James would probably mean having to write off the possibility of future employment at 70-80% of BigLaw type firms. Perhaps more.
There's also the part where lawfare works better when the target of it actually commits a crime. It's admittedly early to tell, but Comey's trial might not go so well for the administration.
A prosecutor's job is to score a conviction. Imagine you're a prosecutor, and your boss tells you you're required to stand in front of a judge being berated because the point was just to harass a guy.
I'm not sure what your point is here. Are you confident that Letitia James has not committed any crimes?
I'm saying attorneys like winning cases because their professional record is the cases they have won. One of the problems with lawfare is by its very nature it's based on going after someone you hate rather than someone who provably committed a crime. If you are a DOJ employee and your boss tells you to find something to stick John Smith with, you may refuse because there's nothing to stick Smith with. Tit-for-tat lawfare is limited by the DOJ's willingness to be put in shitty situations to appease their boss.
With Letitia, I am reading the other thread with interest. I have a bit of passing knowledge of law, but I'm not going to presume to tell the Motte how I think that will go when The Motte includes actual lawyers. Rov_Scam has an interesting analysis. That said, I was pointing out the the Letitia case is not the only example of lawfare going on right now.
Agreed, but so what? I still don't see your point. I agree that in general lawfare results in cases which are, all things being equal, less likely to succeed on the merits. (if "lawfare" is defined as public officials first targeting individuals for political reasons and then trying to put together cases against them). Is that your point?
Except that his analysis appears to be incorrect, at least according to the text of the US Code and a set of pattern jury instructions I found.
Unless he's willing to post information which would allow his credentials to be confirmed, I wouldn't put much stock in it.
Close to it. During Trump's first term, he fought to get Sessions out because A) Sessions recused himself from testifying in Trump's defense during the Russia investigation and B) Trump wanted Sessions to engage in lawfare against Clinton and Sessions refused. Erik Siebert resigned allegedly because he refused to go after Letitia. I am saying that if lawfare results in this kind of staff turnover that also doesn't suggest tit-for-tat lawfare is going to be a recurring theme. I'll grant you that 2 cases out of 3 is low sample size to draw conclusions.
Yes I saw that as well. I don't know that your argument is a slam dunk, though I'm not dismissing it either.
I'm not that jaded that I expect people to dox themselves before I believe them. Rov has been around a while and talks like he knows what he's talking about. That's usually fine for me until someone posts in a way that sets off bullshit detectors.
I sure hope so. Although it's probably worth noting that Letitia James was elected not appointed. Elected on a campaign promise to engage in lawfare.
If he doesn't respond, I'll take it as a concession that (1) he's wrong; and (2) he's sufficiently partisan that he was just BSing.
From my sample (n=1) he's not doing so hot. But as the young people say these days, you do you.
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The case against her existed before Trump wanted to prosecute it. The FBI simply declined to pursue it. Is ignoring the political shield that protects a politician from prosecution that actually anyone else would be subject to the same as lawfare?
I'm defining lawfare as trials motivated by animosity or political advantage, and sincere belief that the guilty should be punished is nonexistent or virtually nonexistent. Any disagreement with that?
Ignoring the shield counts if the reason you are doing so is the desire to bring harm to a specific person. I would even say that lawfare against a politician tautologically requires ignoring that shield. Trump has not exactly demonstrated any strong belief in OpSec in any other situation, between his own administration and storage of confidential documents.
Both Letitia and Trump campaigned on arresting a political opponent, and Letitia's admitting of that seems to be the main point where everyone agrees the mortgage fraud case against Trump was lawfare. The main point of distinction among other people in this thread seems to be that Trump abandoned his attempt after getting into office, which I argue that he probably would have gone through with had he not had the problem with his staff not following orders.
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