Aside From Everything He Said, He Is Right

What are they teaching at the William and Mary Law School?

Matt Gaetz graduated in 2007 from the law school at William and Mary in Virginia, passed the bar exam, became a lawyer, and appears to know little about criminal proceeding. In the video available below, he states

If I were governor of Florida, I would not allow any Floridian to be hauled before some sort of Soros-backed prosecutor in some blue city over politics. And I wouldn't make an exception to not protect the President of the United States.

Ron DeSantis should be standing in the breach to stop any sort of extradition of President Trump from the State of Florida and the fact that he's not doing so puts every Floridian at risk to be the subject of false allegations.

Matt Gaetz attacks Desantis: “Desantis should be standing in the breach to stop any sort of extradition of Trump from Florida. The fact that he’s not doing so puts every Floridian at risk.” pic.twitter.com/2OTkYR85ZM

— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 22, 2023

During the 2022 election cycle, the social justice organization Color of Change PAC endorsed Alvin Bragg for Manhattan District Attorney. A few days later, George Soros gave one million dollars to the group, which reportedly spent approximately half a million dollars to get Bragg elected. Thus, the connection between Bragg and Soros is very much indirect. Gaetz- and other Republicans- could attack Color of Change for considering race as a factor in its support of candidates, but that would require Republicans to confront the issue of race which, contrary to elite opinion, they generally are reluctant to do.

It's misleading and very clever for Gaetz to refer in this context to "President Trump" rather than "ex-President Trump" or "Donald Trump." We learned during the presidency of Donald Trump that he wouldn't be charged with an offense simply because of the bizarre perception that a sitting President could not be charged because, well, a sitting President could not be charged. No one is above the law except when he is.

Of course, we don't know whether Donald Trump is the subject of false allegations because no indictment has been handed down. However, he now is the ex-President, the former President, now a private citizen for the purposes of criminal prosecution.

If indicted, he probably will turn himself in to authorities in New York City. If he does, extradition is a moot point because he will not have been arrested in the State of Florida, which would have exposed him to extradition. Were he to be arrested in his home state and then challenged extradition, Trump would nearly certainly fail in his fight against extradition because the grounds for success are very limited. That would be the case for anyone and even if Representative Gaetz were Governor Gaetz, he would not be able to block return of the defendant to New York State. 

I'm certain that the inability of an alleged offender to block the charging state from getting hold of him never bothered Matt Gaetz before. I am less certain how someone can graduate from a law school and pass the bar exam without understanding that no governor can fight extradition of a resident of his own state who turns himself in to another state without being arrested.

Many cable news lawyers apparently know so little about criminal law, sometimes even going so far as to maintain- with a straight face- that prosecutors are immune to political pressure. However, even by the fairly low standards for these lawyers, Matt Gaetz's evident, though perhaps feigned, ignorance stands apart. Hopefully, William and Mary is not churning out candidates for the profession who are as willing to pontificate about that which they know so little.

It's a safe bet that in any one year, thousands of Floridians already are at the risk of false allegations without an expression of concern from Matt Gaetz These are primarily misdemeanants but- having neither the money nor the power over others as does Trump- the alleged offenders are prosecuted, put onto probation, or even incarcerated. (If you would have guessed this would be a priority of black lives matter protesters, guess again.) Money talks, power shouts, and that will continue to be the case whatever happens to Donald Trump.

Share |