The Haitian Bridge Alliance, a small non-profit Haitian immigrant rights group in Springfield, Ohio, has filed "citizen criminal charges" against Donald Trump and JD Vance.

The national media is taking this extremely silly form of lawfare seriously.

What "crimes" have Trump and Vance committed? The Republican presidential campaign ticket is "charged with disrupting public services, making false alarms, telecommunications harassment, aggravated menacing and complicity."

Trump and Vance did all that? I never knew.

Fifteen thousand newcomers have descended on a small city, overwhelming the medical and educational resources of Springfield. It's a bitter irony to accuse Trump and Vance of what the Haitian immigrants are actually doing. 

“Their persistence and relentlessness, even in the face of the governor and the mayor saying this is false, that shows intent,” said Subodh Chandra of the Cleveland-based Chandra Law Firm, which is handling the complaint. “It’s knowing, willful flouting of criminal law.”

This guy is not a very good lawyer. It's an appeal to authority, not the law. But it sure looks good on the TV and in the papers.

Associated Press:

Steven Cheung, communications director for the Trump-Vance campaign, said, “President Trump is rightfully highlighting the failed immigration system that (Vice President) Kamala Harris has overseen, bringing thousands of illegal immigrants pouring into communities like Springfield and many others across the country.”

The 15,000 to 20,000 Haitian immigrants who have arrived in Springfield over the past several years, in many cases after being recruited to local jobs, have been granted Temporary Protected Status to be in the U.S. legally.

More than 30 bomb threats were directed at state and local government buildings and schools, prompting closures, the assignment of additional law enforcement protection and security cameras. Some of the city’s Haitian residents have also said they feared for their safety as public vitriol grew, and Mayor Rob Rue has received death threats.

“If it were anyone else other than Trump and Vance who had done what they’ve done — wreak havoc on Springfield, resulting in bomb threats, evacuated and closed government buildings and schools, threats to the mayor and his family — they would have been arrested by now,” Chandra said. “They are not above the law.”

It's a unique — and entirely bogus — application of the law, and any judge who gets the affidavit will laugh it out of court. Trump or Vance never urged anyone to make bomb threats or disrupt any city services. 

Some of the charges are out-and-out bizarre.

• Making false alarms — by knowingly causing alarm in the Springfield community by continuing to repeat lies that state and local officials have said were false;
• Committing telecommunications harassment — by spreading claims they know to be false during the presidential debate, campaign rallies, nationally televised interviews, and social media;

"Causing alarm" and "spreading false alarms" are two different definitions for the word "alarm." Was this thing written by a high school kid?

And if it's a criminal act to lie during a presidential debate, every candidate going back to 1960 should have gone to jail.

It's embarrassing that the national media has eagerly embraced this nonsense. It's not surprising, but it is disappointing.