One Trump case heads to a jury, but his guilt is already apparent | Opinion
Donald Trump is guilty.
I’m not speaking from a legal perspective. Only the Manhattan jury that was just handed the case in which Trump is on trial for allegedly falsifying a few dozen business records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment to a porn actress can decide if the prosecution proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
I’m speaking from a commonsense perspective that shouldn’t get lost while we wait for a verdict.
If the jury comes back with a guilty verdict, it would only confirm what we’ve long known.
If the jury declares Trump not guilty, it would be as exonerating as other high-profile Florida men such as George Zimmerman and the late-O.J. Simpson. Like them, Trump will have gone free despite many believing — with good reason — that he committed the crimes for which he was charged. His former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who was a key witness in the trial, has served prison time for his role in those crimes. It doesn’t pass the smell test that Cohen and so many others in Trump’s orbit committed crimes in Trump’s name without his awareness.
No sentient being — not even his staunchest supporters — believes Trump didn’t have an illicit affair with Stormy Daniels even as he keeps saying he didn’t. In most cases, we shouldn’t take a defendant’s decision to not take the stand as a sign of guilt. Prosecutors must prove guilt; defendants don’t have to prove innocence. Trump is an exception to that rule. He spent weeks repeatedly telling the media he was eager to testify. But he didn’t take the stand before the jury went into deliberations.
Because he’s a liar.
Because he’s a fraudster.
I will admit this historic trial, one involving a former president of the United States, as important as it is, isn’t the one those of us who care about this democracy wanted to play out before the 2024 election. Trump’s handling of classified information while leaving the White House and his attempts to overturn the 2020 election were the ones voters needed to grapple with before November. Unfortunately, no other trials are likely to happen before we get to vote.
The classified documents case is being overseen by a Trump-appointed judge who has acted less like a judge and more like a Trump advocate and has kept delaying the trial, knowing if Trump wins, the case might go away entirely. One involving the 2020 election is delayed because Fulton County, Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis did a boneheaded thing. She appointed a love interest to help with the prosecution not realizing — or not caring — that such a move would raise legitimate ethical questions that would have to be resolved before the trial could go forward.
Meanwhile, a Washington trial on federal charges of election interference has stalled as the U.S. Supreme Court dawdles over an incredible assertion that Trump should be immune from prosecution.
The delays are helping Trump politically, as the public grow less convinced of his guilt by the day because they don’t have to grapple with the facts that would have been presented during those exceedingly important trials.
But we shouldn’t forget that a number of Trump lawyers have either spent time in prison, been disbarred, had their law licenses suspended, or pled guilty to felonies for the lies they repeatedly told on Trump’s behalf. It’s silly to believe so many did all of that for an unaware client they called “The Boss.”
Still, the Manhattan trial has been important no matter the verdict. Someone, finally, has sent Trump a clear message that there are potential consequences for bad acts.
I get that his supporters will claim a guilty verdict is unfair, and a not guilty verdict a victory. The rest of us shouldn’t fall for that trap.
Because Trump, who recently referred to opponents as “human scum,” is a liar.
Because Trump, who plans to put millions of undocumented immigrants in concentration camps and deport them if re-elected, is a fraudster.
We don’t need a jury to tell us that.
This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 10:31 AM.