“A sham case, and everyone knows it.” So writes the iconoclastic Matt Taibbi, once counted as a left-wing writer, and he’s not the only one from outside MAGA precincts who has been appalled by the Manhattan district attorney’s case that produced a guilty verdict against former President Donald Trump.

“Bragg should have settled the case against Trump, as would have been normal procedure. But he made a political decision,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told the Atlantic’s McKay Coppins. Romney, the target of repeated Trump insults and one of seven Republican senators who voted for his impeachment and removal, concluded, “Democrats think they can put out the Trump fire with oxygen. It’s political malpractice.”