WASHINGTON: Donald Trump is reaching into his familiar playbook as he fights the first federal criminal charges ever lodged against a former US president.

Having undermined public trust in the democratic process by convincing many Americans the 2020 election was “stolen,” Trump is now seeking to persuade them that the judicial process is equally broken.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, insists he is being targeted for prosecution by a Justice Department weaponised by Democratic President Joe Biden.

“When you arrest your leading political opponent we no longer have a democracy,” Trump said after pleading not guilty to charges of mishandling highly sensitive government documents.

“This is called election interference,” the 77-year-old Republican leader said. “It’s a political persecution like something straight out of a fascist or communist nation.” In fighting the classified documents charges, Trump is waging a battle on two fronts — in a Miami courtroom and in the court of public opinion, analysts said.

“It’s a classic Trump move,” said Thomas Holbrook, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “It helps to rally his supporters.

“Trump’s attacks on the courts or on the Department of Justice just sort of further cement his supporters’ distrust for those institutions,” Holbrook said.

Shirley Warshaw, author of several books on the US presidency, agreed, saying Trump’s strategy is to “erode people’s confidence in a nonpartisan Department of Justice and a nonpartisan FBI.” Polls suggest that Trump’s attacks on the Justice Department, like his efforts to discredit the 2020 election results, have paid off to some extent — at least with Republicans.

According to a CBS News-YouGov poll, 76 per cent of likely Republican primary voters believe that the indictment was politically motivated.

Sixty-one per cent said they would vote for Trump to be the 2024 Republican presidential nominee if the primary was held today.

Several analysts expressed concern that Trump could rile up his loyal base and provoke violence such as that of Jan 6, 2021, when his supporters stormed the US Capitol in a bid to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory.

Wendy Schiller, a professor of public and international affairs at Brown University, said it is not surprising that Trump is seeking to sway public opinion in his favour.

“That’s what politicians do,” Schiller said. “You can argue that in a jury trial, a good lawyer is also trying to appeal to the public opinion on the jury.

“But the other thing he’s doing that’s more frightening is that he’s not trying to appeal to a jury. He’s trying to rouse up the people, the violent forces that attacked the Capitol,” she said. “He’s trying to intimidate the legal system.” One of the main targets of Trump’s ire has been special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the indictment against the former president in the classified documents case and is also looking at whether he should face charges for the attack on Congress.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2023