Empire State Today

In an op-ed published in Newsday, John Faso criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's prosecution of Donald Trump, likening it to a political initiative rather than a legal one. Faso drew parallels between Bragg's approach and the infamous tactics of Lavrentiy Beria, Josef Stalin’s secret police chief known for his ruthless pursuit of real and imagined enemies. Beria was quoted as saying, “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.”

Faso took issue with Bragg's accusation of multiple felonies against Trump by combining a state misdemeanor business records charge with another potential crime related to both federal and state election laws. He pointed out that the United States operates under two parallel systems of governance — state and federal — each with its own justice system run by separate sovereigns, complete with their own laws and prosecutors.

According to Faso, the New York State case of People v. Trump crosses the boundaries of these systems by basing a state criminal prosecution on an alleged federal criminal violation. He argued that neither state nor federal law supports this approach and warned that if upheld, it could destabilize both legal systems with severe and unpredictable outcomes.