(Rick T. Wilking/Pool via AP)
There’s a possibility of former President Donald Trump being indicted and arrested as early as next week over alleged campaign finance violations. Recent reports suggest that the indictment is now “on hold” in order to have another witness testify, but the threat of a potential arrest still looms.
The justice system is supposed to be blind to political affiliations and treat all individuals equally under the law. It’s hard to deny that there seems to be a double standard when it comes to the way justice is applied to those on the left versus those on the right. The mere possibility of Donald Trump facing possible arrest and charges for something that, at most, might result in a minor fine for a Democrat is a prime example of this disparity. Just look at Hillary Clinton.
Last year, the Federal Election Commission fined Hillary Clinton for misreporting payments made to a law firm during the 2016 campaign to hide spending. The law firm in question was Perkins Coie, which hired Fusion GPS to conduct research that resulted in the Steele Dossier, which was later used by Congress to impeach Trump. Clinton classified these expenses as “legal services” and was fined $113,000 for the misrepresentation.
“By intentionally obscuring their payments through Perkins Coie and failing to publicly disclose the true purpose of those payments,” Hillary’s presidential campaign and DNC “were able to avoid publicly reporting on their statutorily required FEC disclosure forms the fact that they were paying Fusion GPS to perform opposition research on Trump with the intent of influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election,” the initial complaint read per the Associated Press.
In contrast, Trump is currently facing potential felony charges for recording alleged payments made to his attorney, who then allegedly used the money to pay off porn star Stormy Daniels. These payments were originally classified as legal fees, and the legal fallout from them could be severe, despite the fact that both he and Clinton are essentially being accused of the same crime.
Trump denies the allegations, but even if they are true, Trump attempted to conceal a relationship that he did not want to become public knowledge. In contrast, Clinton and her presidential campaign commissioned the creation of a document loaded with false information in the hopes of damaging Trump’s presidential prospects. That document was subsequently used by the Obama administration to justify spying on Trump’s campaign and later served as a justification to investigate Trump over connections to Russia that simply didn’t exist.
The difference in the way these two cases were handled highlights the stark differences in legal consequences between Republicans and Democrats.
