Send him down . . .

Donald Trump is never out of the news for long, but at least now there’s a story we can celebrate—his indictment on charges related to his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. This one will run and run. But the case raises some interesting questions. First of which is could such a case occur in those countries where the judiciary has been increasingly constrained—Poland, Hungary and potentially Israel? Ironically the American system of partisan chosen judges is what all-powerful leaders want, but in the States where judges are often elected (ridiculously in my opinion) things have not quite gone entirely one way. Having said which, if a trial of Trump goes ahead he will surely appeal all the way to the Supreme Court if he’s found guilty where no doubt he will expect relief. There’s a chance he could find it too, given the apparently ’novel’ nature of the charges. And the open question is how his potential martyrdom will play out with his supporters.
 
Of course it could never happen here. . .  Never mind threats to our Supreme Court made after it overturned Boris Johnson’s attacks on parliamentary democracy. Attacking the independence of the judicial process is commonplace—usually after a defendant’s case is lost (but Craig Murray has provided plenty of evidence where indeed this critique may be justified). If the House of Commons Standards Committee (effectively a court) finds against Johnson on the charge of deliberately misleading Parliament over ’Partygate’ there will be a loud outcry from many Tories that it was a witch hunt all along. The case of an ex-SNP MP being suspended for 30 days after breaking Covid rules will have them in jitters, but so far Tory MPs seem remarkably silent on that one.
 
Whatever happens, we may wonder how the system can catch petty offenders (and Trump is basically a petty offender as befits a petty man) whilst crimes against humanity go unpunished or not even tested in a court of law. Think Iraq.