Joseph A. Hayden, Jr. Interviewed by InsiderNJ, “It’s Been the Court System that Saved Democracy”
Joseph A. Hayden, Jr., Chair of the Criminal Defense and Investigations practices at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden P.C., was interviewed for an article in InsiderNJ titled “It’s Been the Court System that Saved Democracy”. Hayden discusses the allegations against Donald Trump for concealing and refusing to return documents to the federal government, as well as the unprecedented litigation which will likely cover multiple jurisdictions against a candidate who is running for president.
“I think the New York case is strike one, this case is strike two and the Georgia case is strike three, which could well be a RICO,” said Hayden. “All outward signs point toward an indictment in August. If that Georgia case comes it will be strike three. Trump won’t be able to blame the DOJ for picking on him.
“The system here will have to do something virtually unprecedented,” Hayden added, “which will be to handle criminal litigation in multiple jurisdictions against a candidate for president, perhaps during the campaign. Trump’s ultimate defense is the claim that he’s only been charged because he’s running for office, which is nonsense, but he hopes that if he muddies the waters he can be reelected and pardon himself for any federal charges, including the Jan. 6 indictment down the road.
“I lived through the turmoil of the sixties and the assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X, as well as the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement and Vietnam war protests, but despite the violence we did not have the systemic societal challenges we have here,” Hayden noted. “Then there was no challenge to democracy and no challenge to the efficacy of the court system. Trump inevitably will claim the DOJ has been weaponized but the way the special counsel functioned independently of President Biden or the AG refutes that false claim. The problem is an independent voter has to go into the weeds to see how the special counsel operates independent of the president in order to be convinced by the objective facts. Trump’s people will never do an objective analysis. The dilemma is you can’t not bring charges against somebody who tried to overthrow democracy or who refuses to abide by the rule of law and obstructs justice merely because you cannot convince the Trump voters. This is what will lead us to the inevitable clash of ideologies around the election because justice and democracy demand justice be brought. For legitimate law enforcement to refuse to bring charges is to surrender the rule of law to the extremists. You’ve got to fight. You’ve got no choice. We learned all this from Neville Chamberlain.”
To read the full article, click here.
