Just how many witches have we been hunting?

This is going to sound a little bit naïve. I want to confess that right up front. But we believe what we believe, regardless, and this is what I believe.

Donald Trump, the former president of the United States, has been impeached twice and indicted four times for something like 91 violations of the law, stemming from – among other crimes – allegedly inciting a coup against the United States government and attempting to throw out the results of a free and fair election based on a lie that he knows is a lie but refuses to admit.

Before we get to that, I want to go back six years to the Mueller investigation – a two-year probe by a special prosecutor appointed to determine if Trump and his associates colluded with Russian intelligence to interfere with (and rig) the 2016 presidential election. The Mueller probe lasted from May 2017 to March 2019 and was repeatedly called a “witch hunt” and “the Russia hoax” by Trump and his ardent followers.

If you’ve forgotten the details, I suggest you google “Mueller Report” and brush up on his findings, but in short, the investigation found evidence that the Trump campaign welcomed Russian interference and expected to benefit from it, but that there was insufficient evidence of a criminal conspiracy to charge members of the campaign. The report suggested but did not reach a conclusion about possible obstruction of justice by Trump, citing a Justice Department guideline that prohibits the federal indictment of a sitting president.

When it was over, then-Attorney General Bill Barr whitewashed the final report before Mueller could issue it, allowing Trump to claim “total vindication” and his followers – in one of history’s greatest “I told you so” moments – to write it off as political grandstanding by the opposition party, even though Mueller is a Republican appointed by a Republican and the witnesses were mainly Republicans.

I mention the Mueller report for a reason. Although I wholeheartedly disagree with Barr’s handling of the report, the dubious DOJ memo that seems to impersonate a law and even Mueller’s failure to follow through on evidence that Trump obstructed justice, I can almost understand how Trump backers could believe that the whole affair was political theater and that the Democrats were simply “out to get” Trump, who did nothing wrong.

I say I can “almost” understand how someone can deny wrongdoing on the part of the former president, based solely on the one specific claim that was investigated by Robert Mueller.

But here’s what I cannot understand:

* Since the Mueller investigation, Trump has been found liable for damages in a civil suit stemming from a sexual assault case which a New York judge has subsequently described as “rape.”

* He has been indicted in New York for 34 financial crimes in which he allegedly inflated the value of his assets to acquire loans and insurance, and deflated the value of the same properties to avoid paying taxes on them.

* He is charged with campaign finance violations for paying hush money to a porn star to cover up a sexual affair in advance of his election to the White House.

(For those keeping score at home, that’s rape, fraud and finance law violations – and we haven’t even left New York yet.)

* He was also indicted in Florida for stealing and concealing classified government documents and refusing to give them back when subpoenaed to do so. Charges include 32 counts of willful retention of national defense information in violation of the Espionage Act, six felony counts of obstruction of justice and two felony counts of making false statements.

* He was indicted in Washington, D.C., for inciting a violent coup in an attempt to throw out results of the 2020 election and disrupt the certification of the Electoral College vote. Charges include two felony counts of obstructing an official government proceeding, one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and one additional felony count of conspiracy.

* And he was indicted in Atlanta, Georgia, under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act for attempting to encourage election officials to “find” the 11,780 votes he needed to win the state’s electoral vote, contrary to the actual outcome of voting in the state. The indictment accuses 19 named defendants of criminal wrongdoing and contains 41 state felony charges. Thirteen of those felonies are assigned to Trump, including but not limited to one count of violating the RICO act, three counts of soliciting a public officer to violate his oath of office, two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery and two counts of making false statements and writings.

So to recap, in addition to the charges that could have come from Mueller, Trump is accused of sexual assault and/or rape, financial fraud, campaign finance violations, stealing classified documents, espionage, fraud against the United States, racketeering, forgery and all manner of lying, false statements and conspiracy. The total is 40 charges in the Florida documents case, 34 in the New York financial records cases, 13 in the Georgia RICO case and four related to January 6. So do the math: 40 + 34 + 13 + 4 = 91.

Now tell me. Who in their right mind believes that the “witch hunt” Trump has been claiming since the Mueller investigation has blossomed over six years into 91 separate charges in three different states alleging crimes ranging from rape to espionage and everything in between? How can anyone believe that the Democratic Party – or any organization that is “out to get” Donald Trump – is organized enough to pull this off?

It’s a crime wave that rivals some of the most notorious criminal enterprises in American history. It's hard to believe that anybody could put together a broad, all-encompassing plan like this over a six-year period, especially not a political party that has trouble just passing a bill. I doubt that even Trump – the career grifter and con man – could put together a strategy this effective to destroy a political enemy.

So now that he is running for president again and claiming that he has done nothing wrong, it begs the question, “If this is all a witch hunt, as Trump claims, just how many witches are we actually hunting?” Who knew there were so many witches living among us, and how naïve does someone have to be to believe in them? I mean, maybe you don't believe all of it or part of, but can any reasonable person not believe any of it?

I admitted up front that I was a little naïve, but compared to the naïvete of Trump supporters, I’m apparently the smartest man in the room.