Lawfare’s Threat and the Trap of Retaliation: Trump’s Right, But Weaponising Back Isn’t the Answer, By Chris Knight (Florida)
On June 26, 2025, President Donald Trump endorsed Alex Marlow's Breaking the Law, a Breitbart News exposé set to reveal a "lawfare superstructure" weaponising America's legal system against him. Trump's warning, "cases are rigged left and right, judge shopping is rampant" strikes a chord, backed by Marlow's investigation into how prosecutors and judges targeted him across his terms. Lawfare is "disgraceful & highly destructive," reflect a growing belief that partisan actors, from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg to DOJ's Jack Smith, have turned courts into political bludgeons. The evidence is compelling: Trump faced four criminal indictments in 2023 alone, timed suspiciously after his 2022 campaign launch. But while the corruption is real, retaliating by weaponising the system in return, as tempting as it may be, would deepen the rot, not cure it. The quiet life, where justice is blind and fair, demands reform, not revenge.
Trump's claim of a corrupted judicial system isn't just rhetoric. Marlow's book, per Breitbart, names operatives behind a coordinated effort to use legal institutions as political weapons. Examples abound:
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg: In 2023, Bragg charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records over a 2016 hush-money payment, a case critics like @JudicialWatch on X called a "sham" for inflating misdemeanours into felonies. The timing, months after Trump's campaign announcement, smelt of politics.
Jack Smith's DOJ Cases: The Biden-appointed special counsel hit Trump with federal charges over classified documents and 2020 election challenges. Alex Swoyer's Lawless Lawfare notes Judge Tanya Chutkan's rulings, like allowing Smith's oversized pre-election filings, showed bias atypical of neutral courts.
Fulton County's Fani Willis: Her sprawling RICO case against Trump in Georgia, tied to election interference, dragged through 2024. These cases, often led by Democratic prosecutors in liberal strongholds, suggest "judge shopping," handpicking sympathetic judges like Chutkan, who presided over Trump's January 6 case despite a history of anti-Trump rulings. A 2023 study by the Federalist Society found 68% of federal judges in high-profile political cases leaned toward the prosecuting party's ideology, hinting at systemic bias. The human cost hits hard: a Queens small-business owner, already taxed to the hilt, sees his vote for Trump undermined by endless legal assaults, eroding trust in justice. The quiet life, where courts uphold the law, not agendas, feels like a fading dream.
Trump's warning that lawfare is the "radical left's final weapon to take down America" fuels calls to fight back in kind. Some MAGA voices on X, argue conservatives should use the same tactics, prosecute political foes, target activist judges, to level the playing field. Trump's DOJ, now suing Orange County over alleged noncitizen voter registrations, shows he's not above flexing legal muscle. The Big Beautiful Bill, with its provisions shielding AI from state regulation, could be seen as a counterpunch, empowering allies like Elon Musk while bypassing Democratic strongholds.
But this is a trap. Weaponising the system back, say, by stacking courts or launching retaliatory probes, only deepens the cycle. It risks turning the DOJ into a partisan cudgel, as seen when Biden's DOJ pursued Trump while ignoring Hunter Biden's laptop until 2024. A 2024 Gallup poll shows only 26% of Americans trust the judicial system, down from 54% in 2000. Tit-for-tat lawfare would crater that further, leaving a Brooklyn teacher or a Staten Island cop wondering if justice exists only for the powerful. The quiet life doesn't survive when courts become battlegrounds.
The answer lies in dismantling the mechanisms that enable lawfare, not mirroring them. Marlow's book, as he told Breitbart, aims to "name names" and expose operatives, a step toward transparency. But exposure isn't enough. Practical reforms could include:
Judicial Accountability: Require judges to disclose political donations or recuse from cases tied to their public statements, addressing "judge shopping." A 2022 Judicial Conference rule tightened recusal standards, but enforcement lags.
Prosecutorial Oversight: Limit DAs' discretion in politically charged cases. Bragg's 2023 case, for instance, relied on novel legal theories untested in prior law, per National Review. State legislatures could mandate independent review boards for high-profile prosecutions.
Election Timing Rules: Bar indictments within six months of a candidate's campaign announcement, unless imminent danger is proven, to curb timed political hits. Willis' Georgia case, filed August 2023, reeks of electoral sabotage.
Public Transparency: Mandate open access to case filings and judicial communications, as Swoyer's Lawless Lawfare suggests, to let sunlight expose bias.
These steps, grounded in fairness, protect the system without stooping to vengeance. For a Chicago nurse or a Miami retiree, justice should mean equal treatment, not a weapon for either side.
Lawfare's toll isn't just political, it's personal. A Manhattan entrepreneur, already crushed by $112 billion in city taxes, faces a justice system that seems to pick winners based on politics, not evidence. Families across New York, from the Bronx to Buffalo, lose faith when courts target one man while letting others, like Hillary Clinton, never charged over her emails, skate. The quiet life, where you trust the law to protect, not persecute, is at stake. Marlow's claim that lawfare is "the biggest internal threat to our American way of life" resonates because it undermines the fairness Americans expect, whether they're MAGA or moderate.
Weaponising back might feel good, but it's a losing game. If Trump's DOJ ramps up probes against Democrats, say, targeting Bragg or Willis, it risks alienating the 51% of independents (per 2024 Pew Research) who want less partisanship. It also hands ammo to critics like Rep. Al Green, who filed impeachment articles over Trump's Iran strikes, accusing him of "devolving democracy into authoritarianism." The Left could cry hypocrisy, rallying their base while courts bog down in endless countersuits. The quiet life doesn't thrive in chaos; it needs stability, not a legal cage match.
Trump's right: the judicial system's corruption, laid bare by Marlow's Breaking the Law, is a cancer, with cases like Bragg's and Smith's exposing a politicised "superstructure." But weaponising the system back is no cure, it's a poison that would deepen distrust and division. For the New Yorker scraping by, the Texan fearing border chaos, or the Californian dodging sky-high gas prices, justice should be a refuge, not a battlefield. Reform, through transparency, oversight, and accountability, is the only way to restore the quiet life where the law serves all, not just the powerful. Let Marlow's book spark a fight for fairness, not a race to the bottom.
"President Donald Trump offered glowing praise for Breitbart News Editor-in-Chief forthcoming exposé on weaponization of the legal system, Breaking the Law. The two-time New York Times bestselling author of the Breaking series is set to release the findings of a year-long investigation into what he describes as the lawfare "superstructure" that has targeted Donald Trump and overtaken American politics.
President Trump endorsed Breaking the Law: Exposing the Weaponization of America's Legal System Against Donald Trump, hailing it as "a must read." With his endorsement, the president also offered a grave warning:
"This book is a must read. It shows how corrupt our judicial system is in our country," President Trump told Marlow during a meeting in the Oval Office. "Cases are rigged left and right. Judge shopping is rampant at levels never seen before. You know the outcome of a case as soon as the judge is picked. And the radical left is using this, their final weapon, to take down America."
Marlow expressed gratitude to President Trump for the endorsement in a statement to Breitbart News: "Donald Trump has been the #1 target for the left's lawfare apparatus. No one knows the subject better than he does. He is the ultimate authority on it. So, it means a great deal to me to have his support." Marlow also emphasized the accuracy of Trump's assessment that the left's weaponization of the legal system is absolutely designed to "take down America."
"This book names names and casts a glaring spotlight on the lawfare operatives who hoped to remain hidden," Marlow told Breitbart News.
In Breaking the Law, Marlow turns his sharp investigative lens to the legal cases targeting President Donald Trump in both his terms—and what they mean for the future of the conservative movement and the rule of law in America. The book reveals how legal institutions are being repurposed as political weapons. Marlow not only exposes the players and tactics behind this unprecedented campaign but also makes bold predictions about where this trend is heading—and what conservatives must do to fight back.
"The lawfare superstructure is, without a doubt, the biggest internal threat to our American way of life at this time," he said, adding "Perhaps even more so than my first two books, I feel as though Breaking the Law needed to be written."
The book will be published by Threshold Editions, the conservative imprint of publishing giant Simon & Schuster, which published Marlow's previous two best-selling works.
"[Marlow] reports fearlessly, wherever the facts may lead, holding the most powerful people in the world to account," Breitbart News Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer has said of Marlow, whose prior books have earned praise from elected leaders conservative taste-makers from Tucker Carlson to Mark Levin.
Marlow has been editor-in-chief of Breitbart News since 2013, when he was only 27 years old.
Comments