Andrew Cuomo says Trump's NY legal troubles designed to thwart presidential prospects

Legal commentators on both sides of the political aisle have been endlessly perplexed and frustrated by the recent, high-profile New York civil and criminal cases brought against Donald Trump, but according to one prominent Democrat, there is a very simple explanation for the unorthodox decisions made by the state's attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney to pursue the former president as doggedly as they have.

In the estimation of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Trump was targeted by Letitia James and particularly by Alvin Bragg for the fundamental reason that he dared mount a presidential campaign to unseat Joe Biden and demonstrated a strong chance of defeating him come November, as the New York Post reports.

Cuomo tells all

It was during an appearance last week on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher that Cuomo held forth on what he believes drove Bragg to initiate the hush money case against Trump that ultimately led to his felony convictions, as Fox News notes.

In the former governor's opinion, Bragg would have never bothered to indict Trump over a payment to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels if he was not a top contender for the presidency in 2024.

Cuomo and Maher were in agreement on that point, with both indicating their belief that the trial that concluded in late May was the product of a politically motivated prosecution that would not have been launched against anyone bearing a name other than Trump.

The former governor took a similar stance in reference to James' civil fraud case against Trump, which previously resulted in a finding of liability on allegations involving supposedly inflated real estate valuations and yielded a staggeringly large financial fine.

In Cuomo's words, “The attorney general's case in New York frankly should have never been brought, and he noted that even residents of the Big Apple who do not favor Trump believe that the endless legal battles waged against him are evidence of an undesirable weaponization of the justice system.

Democrats' double standard

Cuomo continued in his expressions of disapproval, remarking on the hypocritical manner in which many in his party, especially those linked to the Biden re-election campaign, constantly depict Trump as an existential threat to the survival of Democracy in this country.

Such accusations, he said, were misplaced. “And you want to talk about a threat to democracy -- when you have this country believing you're playing politics with the justice system, and you're trying to put people in jail or convict them for political reasons, then we have a real problem.”

Democrats, said Cuomo, long assumed that a conviction of Trump would lead to his swift political demise, but nothing of the sort has occurred.

Upwards of 66% of New Yorkers -- including large numbers of liberals who do not hold Trump in high esteem -- have indicated their belief that a wrongful politicization of the justice system has taken place, according to recent polling.

Unintended consequences abound

In his chat with Cuomo, Maher remarked that despite the personal inconvenience and embarrassment of the New York conviction, Trump has simultaneously experienced a political fundraising “bonanza” that has surely caught the left off guard, a sign that liberal prosecutors hoping to bolster Biden's re-election prospects actually produced an unintended backlash among the electorate.

The bottom line, according to Cuomo, is that “if his name was not Donald Trump, and if he wasn't running for president...I'm the former AG of New York [and] and I'm telling you that case would've never been brought.”

Cuomo went on, stating, “That's what is offensive to people, and it should be because if there's anything left, it's belief in the justice system,” and it seems increasingly likely that as as symptom of an irrational hatred for Trump and a desire to see Biden re-elected no matter what the cost, Democrats may have overplayed their hand.