He Fought The Law And The Law Won

If you read only 1 thing today, please make it this ⁦@KFAlegal⁩ explanation of why critics of Trump‘s NY conviction for covering up election interference are just flat out wrong. Karen is a veteran of the DA’s office & takes down the arguments 1 by 1 https://t.co/TLiXR6BtjO

— Norm Eisen (#TryingTrump out now!) (@NormEisen) June 6, 2024

This is an excellent article by a former Manhattan prosecutor who, unlike most of the critics of this case, actually knows what she’s talking about.

 You should read the full article. This is just the part I found easiest to excerpt:

To close this rebuttal, I want to give the case’s critics their due on one count: namely, they’re right that the justice system treated Trump differently than other defendants. For instance, any other defendant who repeatedly violated a court’s gag order and was held in contempt 10 times, threatened the prosecutor, attacked the judge’s family, and required an anonymous jury to protect them from a defendant and his followers would not be afforded the privilege of liberty. 

Trump, now a convicted felon, does not accept responsibility for his crimes, repeatedly violates gag orders, and attacks witnesses, judges, court staff and jurors, yet he is consistently treated leniently by the system. That is indeed highly unusual. Any other defendant would have been incarcerated long ago for these egregious violations of the law and would be sentenced to prison.

I recommend the article if you are interested in what really happened in that Manhattan courtroom, and are interested in how ordinary and extraordinary (the latter solely because of Donald Trump:

But let’s be clear: the prosecution against Trump was only novel and unprecedented because of the defendant’s identity and audacity. The crimes themselves were quite familiar and are frequently prosecuted.)

There’s also the two issues I’ve commented on before: people are generally ignorant about white-collar crime, just as they are ignorant (and shamelessly so) about criminal trials. This is largely because most of us know about trials at all from TeeVee shows and movies. Which may be entertaining, but as windows on reality, are utter fantasy. 

Trump was properly tried, and properly convicted. It’s going to be hard to find to find grounds for appeal. Even if he is sentenced to prison, it’s going to be even harder to find grounds for reversal.

The system worked as it’s supposed to. The only thing extraordinary is Trump’s creation of the situation, for which he, like any convicted criminal, is solely responsible.