One thing that continues to surprise me is the constant reminder that the belief that, if a prosecutor brings charges, the charges must have some merit is non-partisan. I always thought that would be an assumption made by the tough on crime, right.
Yes, it's safe to say that prosecutors don't like to lose. It doesn't often look as bad for them if they drop charges because they didn't have a case than to bring the case to trial and lose.
Still, especially in high profile cases, a prosecutor could realize that he or she could still score a victory even if they lose.
I don't think that Thomas Binger is a particularly bright person; but, he's more evil than he is stupid. Of course he brought charges against Rittenhouse despite not having a case. He knew that half of the country was dumb enough to believe that Rittenhouse was guilty. He only needed to get one juror to believe the lies in order to get a hung jury and get himself a second shot. One thing that he clearly did after he realized that everything was going the defense's way was try to force a mistrial by tampering with evidence and disobeying the judge's orders. And, even if he did lose (which, thank God he did), there are enough people out there who know so little about the law that he can convince them that the judge was bias and that he had made a gallant effort.
This isn't all that uncommon.
