Sometimes, the system works
Trump finally meets a consequence for his criming.
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It’s almost impossible to overstate how weird it is to write about the former president of the United States being convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records. However, that former president is Donald Trump, who is facing three other criminal trials and currently facing close to half a billion dollars in civil penalties, so discussions regarding his criminality also feel oddly commonplace.
The New York state hush money/election interference trial was always a bit of a red-headed stepchild in the pantheon of Trump criminal trials. It’s the one that felt the least momentous, a state trial about what felt like a sordid, small, sad chapter, and one we already knew so much about, given Michael Cohen’s federal conviction over his role in the crime. And, of course, there’s the continuing disappointment that this will probably be the only trial that happens before election day.
None of those caveats, however, should diminish the historic nature of this verdict. There have been many times over the last several years when it felt like Trump would never see any consequences for his actions, but a felony criminal conviction is a real one.
Trump’s New York crimes went beyond mere “hush money”
Regarding the mechanics of the actual verdict, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. Broadly, all counts relate to Trump funneling money through Michael Cohen to pay Stormy Daniels to keep silent as the 2016 election hit the home stretch. There are 34 counts because each invoice, accounting record, and check that formed a part of the payoff scheme is a separate count.
Sentencing is set for July 11, which we know both from reports from the courtroom and because Donald Trump Jr. is rage-tweeting about it, saying that since that date is only four days before the GOP convention, “They're not even trying to hide the ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!!” This overlooks, of course, that likely any date over the next several months is somehow close to an important date in the presidential election calendar.
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Trump could be sentenced to anywhere from 16 months to four years in prison. He could also just get probation. That’s the prediction of former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. However, Vance is the DA who didn’t seem to have the appetite to pursue this case, and his successor, Alvin Bragg, made it happen. There’s a real temptation to focus on the fact that Trump may not see the inside of a jail cell, but ultimately these felonies are hung around his neck no matter what. As of roughly 5:00 p.m. yesterday, the man became a convicted felon, and he can’t make that go away. He will certainly appeal, but the appeal process takes months, so it’s nearly certain that on Election Day, Trump will still be a convicted felon.
Regrettably, we’ve already learned that thanks to the United States Supreme Court, even being an insurrectionist is not enough to keep Trump off the ballot, and Trump’s criminal conviction does not bar him from running for president. This is the case even though the conviction relates to a criminal enterprise Trump undertook to ensure he got elected. That’s something that gets lost in the discourse a bit, as it’s easy to focus on the “hush money” part of the crime and forget that the entire reason for the hush was that Trump feared the Stormy Daniels story would hurt his election chances.
No one could have known, back in October 2016, that Trump’s abhorrently misogynistic behavior would be seen as a plus by his fans. There’s a certain irony in the fact that Trump is going down over actions that were likely unnecessary. Given that the release of the Access Hollywood tape didn’t end his presidential bid, it’s entirely possible that Trump voters would have shrugged off the Stormy Daniels revelations too.
Trump’s conviction prompted many to quip about him now not being able to vote thanks to Florida’s draconian voting laws, which bars felons from voting even when paroled or on probation.
However, Trump wasn’t convicted in Florida. He was convicted in New York, and Florida law says someone is only ineligible to vote in Florida if they would be ineligible in the state where the conviction occurred. In New York, people on parole or probation can vote, as can people who were not sentenced to prison or who finished their prison sentence.
So, Trump’s voting rights are saved by the fact that he was convicted in a blue state that is less inclined to deny them to convicts. Isn’t it ironic?
MAGAs are mad Dear Leader isn’t above the law
How are conservatives handling it? Trump supporters are making sure their leader knows they have his back. Lindsey Graham already issued a statement saying he expects the verdict to be reversed dismissing the proceedings as “a mockery of justice.” State GOP politicians raced to make statements, so we’ve already heard from Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and Ken Paxton, of course. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Sen. Marco Rubio, currently hoping for a VP slot, think it is a travesty.
Non-politicians aren’t handling this any better than elected officials. Tim Pool is posting through it, featuring a ridiculous illustration of Trump as a steely-eyed gunslinger. Fox News reported on Trump's “prominent celebrity backers” and their unhappy reactions to the verdict. The prominent celebrities are, of course, the same also-ran types who always pop up to defend him: Caitlyn Jenner, Rob Schneider, and Randy Quaid.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is doing what it always does: fundraising off of the developments in Trump’s criminal trials. Despite not being at all incarcerated yet, Trump declared, “I am a political prisoner!” in a fundraising email.
As much as Trump supporters try to spin his conviction as unheard of and anti-democratic, it is neither of these things. Indeed, Mark de la Iglesia, writing over at Freedom House, examined how common cases against former heads of state really are. The answer? Far more common than you’d think, and definitely not the unprecedented banana republic situation Trump has always complained about. De la Iglesia found that “43 percent of the world’s freest countries have seen their presidents or prime ministers charged with crimes since 2000.” That includes France, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Argentina, Israel, South Korea, and South Africa.
True democracy means that no one is above the law. When it suits them, conservatives love to trot out the John Adams line about how we are “a nation of laws and not men.” But when they say that, they’re usually doing it to whine about how judges shouldn’t be allowed to declare bigoted laws unconstitutional. The line gets deployed a lot less these days, however, because even conservatives with no shame realize how hollow it would sound.
If we are really that nation of laws and not men, then those laws apply to Donald Trump. For years, we’ve wondered if that could ever be true as we watched the system struggle mightily with how to handle a president who simply refused to follow laws or norms. Yesterday, if only for this one moment, and only thanks to 12 brave New York souls who will almost certainly face doxxing and threats of violence from Trump supporters, we learned laws are real and sometimes, just sometimes, the system works.
That’s it for this week
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Thanks for reading. I hope you have a better weekend than Donald Trump does.
The defense APPROVED of this slate of jurors. Don't forget that. How was this rigged?
We’ll see how well it works at sentencing…. Take into account all his false accusations made towards the court, its employees, the witnesses, and the fact he has NOT ONE OUNCE of empathy for the people he’s hurt, the motherfucker should get 6 months MINIMUM. Not a day less. I don’t give shit he’s the leading candidate in the Republican Party…. HE IS AN AMERICAN FIRST AND SUBJECT TO THE LAWS AND PENALTYS like the rest of us. The Republicans should’ve shunned him from Day 1. Now they’re all tied to the sinking ship…. With no way to back out now.