By David Sperry
This past we saw a dishonest New York prosecutor convict Donald Trump on bogus criminal charges. The case involved an allegation of bookkeeping errors, regarding payments to Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. It was not illegal to pay Stormy Daniel’s hush money, Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) are used every day and are totally and completely legal. Crooked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg twisted and warped the legal process to charge Trump with a truly convoluted felony. Bragg’s liberal Democrat predecessor refused to prosecute the case. The Federal Elections Commission officially ruled there was no crime. The Bragg conviction of Donald Trump was a bastardization of justice and the criminal process.
Unfortunately, we have a similar case closer to home. In 2018, local State Attorney Amira D. Fox, then the Chief Deputy State Attorney, used her office to prosecute her political opponent on a trumped-up petty crime. Her underdog primary opponent, former prosecutor Chris Crowley, held a fundraiser in Buckingham. Two supporters held a raffle and handed Crowley a $600 donation. Crowley took the money but checked with the Florida Division elections before even putting it into his campaign account. When the elections division said raffle funds were not permitted, Crowley returned the money and that should have been the end of the story.
Amira Fox and her mentor, the infamous former State Attorney Steve Russell, used the prosecutor’s office to have Crowley arrested for two felony charges, all over a s $600 raffle, even after the fact the money had been returned. This was another bastardization of justice and the criminal process. Fortunately, the charges against Crowley were later dropped, but the political damage Fox wanted was executed. She got her headline of Crowley being arrested. Amira D. Fox had her opponent arrested over a $600 raffle, petty politics at its worst.
When prosecutors use their offices to prosecute political opponents, they destroy basic concepts of fairness and justice. The United States becomes a two-bit banana republic. We need to go back to being a nation of laws and not a nation of politically charged prosecutors using their offices to go after their political opponents on fake process charges.
Amira Fox and Alvin Bragg are two birds of a feather. They both abuse their connections and power to falsely prosecute their political adversaries. They both violate their oath of office and public trust. The people of Lee County and New York both deserve better.