Your turn: Latest disease sweeping the country is 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'

A disease is sweeping the country. It is real and debilitating. It started spreading eight years ago and there's no sign that it is abating. Sadly, there is no cure.

Of course, I'm talking about Trump Derangement Syndrome. It has infected the entire main-stream media and every Democrat in the country. Its victims lose their ability to look objectively at anything The Donald does.

Like with many pandemics, this virus has mutated. It now infects Trump supporters and renders them unable to look fairly at anything that goes against their man. The most recent outbreak arose in Atlanta in one of myriad cases pending against The Orange Man.

When the judge rendered his opinion in the hearing to remove the States Attorney Fani Willis, conservative media went crazy. One radio guy said that clearly the judge was crooked and was out to get Trump. That was the standard line among most right-wing commentators.

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Those kinds of accusations have become common on both sides, and they are dangerously corrosive to our legal system. Like many, I had seen televised excerpts from the hearing but hadn't followed it closely.

So, I read the judge's opinion to decide if the fix was in. What I read was a calm, well-reasoned judgment that seemed free of Trump Derangement Syndrome. The judge considered each issue separately and based his decision in the facts as he saw them.

What the judge found after listening to all the witnesses was that it was shady and maybe illegal but there was not conclusive evidence to remove Willis and her boy toy. Even if it wasn't proven, the judge said it was smelled badly enough to create what the lawyers call "the appearance of impropriety." Ya' think? For that reason, either attorney Wade or his Fani had to go. Wade jumped off the sinking ship so Fani could stay.

It wasn't a matter of cutting the star-crossed lovers an undeserved break, it was the right decision legally.

Lots of Trump people wanted the judge to do everything; kick them both off the case, dismiss the charges, disbar everybody, etc. etc. etc. In fact, there will probably be more ramifications to the affair including professional punishments.

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However, those are for a different time in different venues such as the Georgia Bar Association, the Georgia Supreme Court or the state legislature.

The judge explained thoroughly that none of those things had anything to do with deciding who could prosecute this case. He just found that Romeo and Juliet couldn't do it together.

There is an old expression that says, "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you." I don't think Trump got shafted in the Fani case but there are other examples of officers of the court system trying to do a political hit job on him.

The huge judgment in New York concerning lying to lenders is the result of a judge and prosecutor with an ax to grind. The recent bond requirement doesn’t eliminate the vendetta.

Likewise, the case regarding payments to the porn star is a boondoggle of legal casuistry. Most legal experts that don't suffer from Trump Derangement Syndrome explain that prosecutor Alvin Bragg has created a legal theory out of thin air.

Sadly, because the case is being tried in New York City, there's a very real possibility that Trump will be convicted.

Ordinarily, I would rely on the appellate court to right this wrong but there is reason to question whether any New York judges have a desire to be fair. That is the true threat to our legal system.

Conservatives have labeled Trump's legal problems as "lawfare" and there is some truth to that. The New York Attorney General ran on a platform of getting Trump, as did Fani Willis.

The judge in the fraud case has made public comments disparaging The Orange Man. This is the sort of "appearance of impropriety" that has no place in our legal system.

Officers of the court like judges and lawyers and even jurors have a duty to be guided by the law, not their personal political beliefs.

Your turn: These two Republicans are why we ended up with Donald Trump

In Robert Bolt’s play "A Man For All Seasons", Sir Thomas More has an exchange with his son-in-law William Roper.

William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”

Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”

William Roper: “Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!”

Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down, and you're just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!”

The law is designed to protect us all and twisting it to fit one’s personal belief endangers everyone.

Harry Bulkeley is a retired judge in Knox County.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Your turn: 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is sweeping the nation