Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos.

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. The attorney general of the state of New York, Letitia James, has recently been indicted by a grand jury. She’s a chief law enforcement officer, remember, of the entire state of New York.

And the charges are varied, but they can be boiled down to, she bought a property in Maryland, and that property she declared on a federal form to obtain a mortgage and various other considerations that would also state on taxes.

She said that, in one case, would be her principal residence, and another case, she said that it would be, perhaps, a second home and not rented. And as early as 1983, she had applied for an income property where she, maybe mistakenly, but she wrongly described the property’s square footage and rooms as a rental. And more importantly, she allegedly put her father down as her husband in this 1983 application.

So, all of this is coming to the fore, and she’s been indicted by the federal Trump Justice Department. And there’s been an outcry. And the issue is not, it doesn’t seem to me—she has never said that “I never, never, never made a mistake on these forms. I was always totally honest.” I think her lawyer said she made some errors, but they were insignificant.

And by the way, if you’re the chief law enforcement officer and attorney general of New York, you should never be saying anything otherwise that you live in New York. That’s by statute. The attorney general must have her principal residence. There’s some indication that she waffled on that as well.

So, what’s going on? The Left says this is President Donald Trump’s revenge tour. That if it was not Letitia James, but it was just some other person, the federal government probably would not have looked at it. That’s probably true. But on the other hand, Letitia James, who ran for the attorney generalship in 2018, ran expressively on a promise to get then-President Donald Trump. She even said, “I have my eye on Trump Tower.”

And by 2022, when she ran for reelection, she ran on a promise to “get Donald Trump.” It was a racialized campaign. She mentioned his gender, the fact that he was white. She whipped up crowds. And she bragged to Al Sharpton that she was going to “get Donald Trump.” This was the chief law enforcement officer of New York.

So, when she filed suit in the courtroom of Judge Arthur Engoron—a well-known liberal justice—she got a New York jury to convict Donald Trump. And it was an outrageous settlement. And at one point, the fine was $500 million, half a billion dollars. That was a crippling fine, and it was never heard of.

And remember, when she did file the suit against Donald Trump, which was eventually challenged and at a higher court and all but thrown out, the gist of the case was that he had overvalued a real estate property and unlawfully filled out forms that inflated the value, even though the Deutsche Bank, who had issued the loan, had no disagreement about the value of the collateral property, had no problem that the loan was paid on time, if not early, and in full to the profit of the Deutsche Bank. So, there were no victims in this. No one was complaining. And yet, she pursued it.

What can we conclude? On the one hand, let’s take the Left view, very quickly, that this is retribution, it’s tit for tat, and if we continue this cycle, we’re going to descend into a Third-World country status, where every time a particular party takes over the control of the White House, they’re going to punish their predecessors of the other party. That’s something that we should worry about.

But on the other hand, we saw, with Alvin Bragg and Letitia James and Fani Willis and Jack Smith, a miscarriage of justice. We all knew that those charges that these four prosecutors filed, A, would’ve never been filed had Donald Trump said he was not going to run again. B, they will never be filed against any other politician, no doubt. And C, if Donald Trump just said that he was going to run, but he decided he was a RINO or he was left-wing and he agreed with Letitia James’ political views, he probably would’ve got off. He would never have been indicted. And you can diddle the same attitude from Judge Engoron.

So, do you just let that all slide or do you look at what Letitia James has allegedly done? It’s just simply a question. Did she say something, in writing, on a form that was a lie? And did she do that as the attorney general of New York?

So yes, they probably gave her inordinate attention, given what she had done in the past. But on the other hand, you give inordinate intention, not just to your political enemies that have hurt you, but more importantly, to high officials.

If she was a campaign flack, if she was the head of the Democratic National Committee, it would be one thing. But the attorney general of New York is the chief law enforcement officer of a huge and important state. And she’s gotta be above suspicion. And the irony, isn’t it, in many of the commentaries about this indictment, people are using the very words that she used to remind people that Donald Trump should not be above the law.

There’s a final question, and that is: How do you end it all? How do you end tit for tat or lawfare against Democrats or Republicans? Do you just allow all of these things that went on, or do you remind the Left that everybody is human, and if you really do want to fabricate charges, you better be above suspicion?

Because, unlike Donald Trump’s Letitia James indictment, this is not involving anywhere the amount of financial loss in her case. But it’s a clear-cut case. She either lied on forms or she didn’t. If she did, she’s culpable. And she should be prosecuted and convicted—if she’s culpable.

In the case of Donald Trump, I don’t think anybody, Left or Right, thought that he had done anything wrong. In fact, some of the properties that he listed were more valuable than even he listed.

So, is it when somebody does a wrong, do you forget it and just say, “Let’s move on,” because if we don’t move on, we’ll enter a cycle of ruinous tit-for-tat lawfare? Or do you say, “We’re going to hold people responsible who broke the law”?

And yes, we’re gonna give inordinate attention for those who wage lawfare. But we’re going to stop it and remind people: Don’t do it. Not because we believe that they’re moral or that they’re virtuous, but because there will be deterrents. And if they know—they being people who use lawfare—that if they were to do it again, it will boomerang, just maybe, just maybe, it would stop.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

The post Letitia James Is a Victim of Her Own Actions—Not a Trump ‘Revenge Tour’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.