Lawfare’s Last Gasp

Legal issues can be hard to summarize, but using laws to punish political adversaries is anti-American and dangerous. All should accept this. Trust vanishes. Faith in institutions goes away. Lawfare is fatal. That is why it must end in 2026.

In 2016, Americans saw laws twisted to serve crass political ends, false facts alleged, leaked for an independent counsel, and abused by prosecutors. We shuddered.

In the end, the President was unfairly prosecuted but – somehow – weathered political lawsuits and two lawless impeachments. He was re-elected. The People spoke.

Fast forward to now. Today, 15 states – from California to Maine – have Democrat governors, House, and Senate. The “trifecta” pushes “sanctuary” status for illegal aliens, excess spending and taxes, overregulation, rising crime, and energy costs.

When opposed by The People, they retaliate, as if this is legal in America. They sully, slam, and silence legitimate voices of political opponents who play by the rules.

When these Democrats hear footsteps, they revert to “lawfare,” trying to intimidate opponents by misapplying laws. The most shocking misuse of laws – recently – is a set of vengeance-seeking lawsuits against the Administration.

Fifteen Democrat states have sued over Executive Order 14187, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”  Democrats push radical surgery on children – often without parental consent – and call it “gender affirming.”

Child abuse by any name is child abuse. Another abuse is the lawsuit by 17 Democrat governors to force federal wind subsidies indefinitely. The President legally curtailed them. With no irreparable harm, no case. They do not care.

A third example of lawfare, abusive use of the law by Democrat states, is 20 states trying to block federal oversight of Medicaid funds, for which ample evidence of fraud exists in places like Maine, Minnesota, and California. They stiff-arm subpoenas.

In total, dozens of frivolous, abusive cases clog courts for political ends, filed by Governors and AGs who know there is no legal basis, yet push cases anyway.

The worst case of state-level “lawfare” may be happening in one-party, Democrat-dominated Maine.

In Maine, the Secretary of State who threw Trump off the ballot – reversed by the US Supreme Court – now refuses to comply with Justice subpoenas, sues to keep voter rolls secret, lets hundreds of ballots escape custody without investigating, blocks undercover plates for federal law enforcement, and, while running for governor – controls the election process, refuses to resign. Sound corrupt?

To that, add a Democrat legislature that violated federal law, history, and precedent to brazenly silence a conservative legislator who dared argue Title 9 is and was always intended to protect biological girls, which 50 years of precedent affirms.

In daily, petty, recurring incidents of abuse, the Democrat Governor, legislature, department heads, investigators, and political operators, plus constitutional officers, courts, and district attorneys target, harass, and retaliate against those who blow the whistle on mis-, mal-, and non-feasance, waste, and fraud.

If nauseating, it is also illegal and must – as Justice is doing at the national level – be stopped in Maine. Lawfare is un-American. One event illustrates the extreme.

A hardworking Maine lobsterman – also the Republican House minority leader – was recently and shamelessly targeted, sued, and abused by Democrats with impunity.

Maine House minority leader “Billy Bob” Falkingham has lobstered all his life and regularly fights for the industry. The Democrat Governor, Attorney General, and Labor Department decided they could teach him a lesson, strike fear, so they sued him.

Falkingham, like countless Mainers in farming, lobstering, and heritage trades, aims to pass his knowledge to the next generation. We all have to do that. Accordingly, he and his son taught lobstering to a friend’s son, who happens to be 14 years old.

Over four days, the minority leader took the two kids – son and friend – lobstering, taught them the ropes, how to band and bait, and paid the son’s friend a life lesson.

Understand this: I was already working full-time at age 12, standard for Mainers then, not lobstering but manual labor for 40 bucks a week, loved it. I learned plumbing, carpentry, skill saws, chain saws, mowers, sanders, and how to trust myself.

I worked for WWII veterans who were fighting Nazis at 16 – yes, using “heavy equipment” – like guns and grenades. They did that for me so I might have the freedom to work. That experience was formative, taught me confidence and respect.

Back to Falkingham: The Republican leader and lobsterman, critic of an incomprehensible, increasingly socialist, unanchored Governor, was targeted. There can be no question whatsoever. He was the victim of Democrat “lawfare.”  

Falkingham was sued for teaching this 14-year-old friend of his son’s how to lobster, how to band lobsters, bait the traps, and then paid the young man.

The specter of lawfare – as practiced by Democrats in Maine – is ugly. The State’s  Democrat AG first claimed exposure to a “hazardous occupation,” knowing full well that fishing – of all kinds – is exempted from that child labor law. No matter.

Second, the AG hit this Republican leader with a malicious fine, four “time record” violations – $1000 each – plus four more for using a “check” not a “pay statement,” $800. Lawfare – let’s be blunt – is persecution. It is disgusting. 

In a fair world, lawfare is prosecuted. It is malicious, targets opponents, and aims for fear. But Falkingham, Maine’s lobstermen, and most Americans – will not bend. We are sick of abuse, fraud, and lawfare being treated as normal. It is criminal. Next election, it ends. Nationally and in Maine, we are seeing lawfare’s last gasp.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!