COMMENTARY: Trump’s opponents not playing strictly by the book

You might have heard that Donald Trump is going to be a dictator if he wins the presidency. Among other things, he’s threatening to target his political opponents.

Let’s stipulate that Trump is a provocateur who freaks out his opponents even when he’s on relatively good behavior. And his conduct after the 2020 election was genuinely alarming and deeply wrong. He shouldn’t talk about going after his political enemies, let alone actually do it if he takes power again.

But the vapors over Trump’s threatening statements are rich coming from people who have targeted their enemy by any means necessary for years now. The Russian collusion investigation, the Hunter Biden cover-up and the politically timed legal onslaught against Trump are among the most shameful and tawdry efforts to destroy a political opponent in memory.

They all have involved the abuse of power by national security or law enforcement officials, with the connivance of a complicit media.

I’m not opposed to, or shocked by, political hardball. The stakes in our debate are enormous, and that debate should be litigated robustly, even harshly. But that’s different from abusing investigative processes and leveraging the presumed professionalism and moral authority of national security and law enforcement officials for a political campaign against one man.

The media coverage of Trump makes it sound as though we are starting on a fresh playing field, where everything has been strictly by the book since 2016. You would never know that, back then, top law enforcement officials began a poorly predicted investigation into Trump campaign officials, lied to the FISA court, connived to win appointment of a special counsel and then that special counsel — puffed up by the media with “walls are closing in,” “only Mueller knows” coverage — kept his investigation going well after he knew there was nothing there.

It’s unmentioned that in 2020, two weeks before Election Day, former national security officials, some of whom were highly respected, put their names to a letter meant to mislead about the Hunter laptop; Biden, from the debate stage, lied about that laptop and his son’s business dealing; and Twitter censored the story and much of the rest of the media treated it as a nonevent at best. All of this was meant to keep the laptop’s true importance under wraps through Election Day.

If Hunter’s original sweetheart plea deal hadn’t blown up upon first contact with an independent judge, he would have escaped serious legal consequences. The affair was a distortion of the political and legal process.

And, oh yeah, Biden Justice Department officials and Democrat prosecutors are currently trying to put the other side’s leading contender for the White House in jail. As a warm-up act, they are also attempting to kneecap his business in a trial in which the verdict has already been decided. Almost all these charges are unworthy, dubious or imprudent, but that hasn’t stopped Trump’s pursuers.

Trump’s critics would be on firmer ground objecting to his declared campaign of vengeance if they had been willing to forebear during any of these episodes, if they had ever insisted on fair play, if they’d been willing to look beyond the man they loathe and make judgments based on truth and professional standards. Instead, they’ve lit a fuse while pretending they’re opposed to pyrotechnics, with consequences as yet unknown.

Rich Lowry is on X @RichLowry.