50 reasons why $70 million plus in small donations poured in after Trump verdict

Why? There are as many motives as there are donors, but having spoken with a dozen contributors —mostly new donors— on my radio show Monday, their responses confirmed for me my hunch that the general feeling at large in at least half the country is that the New York trial and convictions were yet another abuse of power done in order to “get Trump.” Another abuse of power in a long-running drama that became, for them, the proverbial “last straw.”

Want a list of the previous straws? Forgive the shorthand, but a column has limits and most folks will instantly recall what these short notations mean. Paul Simon once recorded a hit song “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Here are 50 reasons why people may have reached a new level of disgust late Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning and contributed to the various campaign websites. Each of these “straws” brings consciously to mind a discrete abuse of power since Trump came down the escalator in 2015, and the eruption of the contributions volcano is evidence that the outrage is real and widespread:

1. Hillary’s private server, the rules it violated and the threat to national security it posed, and no prosecution for it.
2. Hillary’s lawyers’ deletion of half of her emails and no prosecution for that.
3. Hillary’s use of Bleach Bit and hammers and again no prosecution.
4. Former FBI Director James Comey’s “nothing to see here” conclusion on the Clinton emails on REP. Anthony Weiner’s laptop.
5. The Steele Dossier.
6. Marc Elias and his then law firm Perkins Coie and their roles in the 2016 campaign, which included retaining Fusion GPS, a Washington firm, to “conduct the research” and create the Steele dossier.
7. The leak of the Steele dossier to Mother Jones and other media outlets
8. The meeting (ambush?) of President-elect Trump by then-CIA Director Brennan, then-FBI Director Comey and then-DNI Director Clapper at Trump Tower in January 2017, at the conclusion of which Comey briefed the president-elect on the most salacious parts of the dossier. (The news that Comey had done so almost immediately leaked.)
9. The recusal by Attorney General Jeff Sessions from any matter involving the Trump 2016 campaign.
10. Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein naming Robert S. Mueller III to serve as Special Counsel to oversee the investigation of Russian government efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election and related matters.
11. The team of hyper-partisan prosecutors assembled by Mueller
12. The revelations from the Peter Strzok-Lisa Page messages about the corruption atop the FBI
13. The 22 months Mueller and his attack pack took to find…nothing.
14. The two thick volumes of “Mueller report” intended to cover the dry holes Team Mueller had drilled.
15. The refusal by Team Mueller to send to then-Attorney General William Barr a version of the report that Barr requested, a version redacted of classified information so that it could immediately be published, which the Mueller team did not do.
16. The smear of Barr that he was hiding the report and then the smear of Barr that his conclusion that there was no obstruction was somehow flawed.
17. The leak of the Trump phone call with Ukraine President Zelensky.
18. The manufacture of Impeachment One based on that call.
19. The lies of Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., throughout the Mueller investigation and then throughout the impeachment.
20. The changes in voting rules because of COVID.
21. The “Zuckerbucks” and “Zuckerboxes.”
22. The Commission on Presidential Debates 2020 selection of moderators and its unilateral decision to cancel one of the debates.
23. The Hunter Biden laptop and the censoring of most stories about it when the New York Post got the scoop.
24. The letter from “51 former senior intelligence officials” concluding that the emails on Biden’s laptop “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
25. The lawlessness of the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd (and the refusal to call out that protestors were violating COVID guidelines even as churches, beaches  and playgrounds were closed.)
26. The second impeachment after the 1/6 riot at the Capitol, an effort undertaken even as the transition to President Biden in two weeks would obviously prevent a timely proceeding with even minimal attention to the process due any official much less the outgoing president.
27. The set-up by the FBI of the meeting with Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (USA, ret.) and his subsequent prosecution.
28. The conduct not just of Comey, Page and Strzok but also of the Bureau’s Andrew McCabe and James Baker.
29. The manipulation of the membership of House Select Committee on 1/6 by then-Speaker Pelosi who vetoed future Indiana Senator Jim Banks from becoming the ranking minority member and proceeded to name two anti-Trump Republicans to the show trial “committee.” The entire charade reflected this original breach of trust with voters, rigging the proceedings to run as they did.
30. The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago.
31. The appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel (despite the Supreme Court having tossed his prosecution and conviction of former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell).
32. The appointment of a different Special Counsel, Robert Hur, to President Biden’s classified documents case and the obviously different standard for prosecution applied to Biden than was applied to Trump.
33. The conduct of and civil case against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
34. The conduct of New York judge Arthur Engoron during that civil proceeding, and his outrageous setting of the bond.
35. The E. Jean Carroll proceedings and verdicts.
36. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg campaigning for office on the promise of getting Trump.
37. Bragg filing an indictment against Trump resurrecting time-barred misdemeanors but without specifying in the indictment the “second crime” that turned those time-barred misdemeanors into felonies ripe for prosecution.
38. Trial court judge Juan Merchan’s symbolic contributions to the 2020 Joe Biden campaign and two hard left causes —in contravention of black letter New York law governing judicial conduct— and Merchan’s refusal to recuse himself from the Trump trial.
39. Merchan’s anti-Trump rulings on many, many issues ranging from admitting plea bargains with Michael Cohen and David Pecker that the defense objected to, to refusing to allow former Federal Elections Commission Chair Professor Brad Smith testify to the extent of his knowledge, rulings which telegraphed the judge’s push for a conviction.
40. The blistering by Merchan of defense witness Robert Costello and the judge’s interference with Costello’s testimony.
41. The failure of the judge to clearly instruct on the state of mind “the second crime” would require.
42. The jury not declaring what the “second crime” was on the verdict paper.
43. The conduct of Judge Tanya Chutkan in attempting to rush a trial in federal district court in D.C.
44. The gag order on Trump issued by trial judge Engoron in the case brought by James.
45. The gag order on Trump issued by trial Judge Chutkin in the case brought by Smith in D.C.
46. The gag order on Trump issued by Merchan.
47. The four-days-a-week of trial in the spring of the election year, a schedule requiring Trump to be in a Manhattan court room for six weeks, thus interfering with the presidential campaign
48. The conduct of both Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fanni Willis and her lover and co-counsel Nathan Wade.
49. The refusal of all of these prosecutors and judges to wait on the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity from criminal proceedings based on acts taken while president.
50. Arizona’s Democratic State Attorney General Kris Mayes’ and her grand jury’s indictment of 18 people in an election interference case filed in late April.