May 30 is a new national holiday in America:
Fuck Trump Day.
Donald Trump, former Viceroy of Russian North America, on May 30, 2024 anno domini, was found guilty of all 34 criminal charges against him in a New York court. Politico:
“Just minutes before jurors revealed they had reached a decision, Merchan was preparing to send them home for the day with instructions to come back in the morning to continue deliberating. Trump appeared jovial, his allies predicting that the lengthening deliberation might signify a real battle in the jury room.
But then the judge announced that the jury had given him a note. They had reached a verdict and were in the process of filling out the verdict form.
In an instant, the smiling stopped, a smattering of gasps could be heard, and then a heavy silence filled the room. Reporters who had been packing their bags jolted upright and waited in agonizing suspense for the jury to enter the room.”
Oh, frabjous day! Callou, callay!
He chortled in his joy.
Now I know the various monsignors and cardinals in the Church of Trump have been directed to spread the dogma that this makes Trump a “political prisoner.” Well, so was the Marquis de Sade, and at least he could write books. I’m sure all the good little Trumpniks are gonna tell us the trial was “Rigged” and “STOLLEN.” Here’s at least two things to consider in regard to how the American justice system actually works, at least unless Trump gets re-elected:
One, this is a common-law system of justice in this country, where a criminal defendant has a presumption of innocence, largely because the balance between the government and one individual is necessarily unequal, no matter how much money or power the defendant has. Thus, knowing that this is necessarily the case, the English-speaking world has decided that the defendant must have factors in their favor.
Second, related to the first, is the jury system. I am not going to debate the validity of the premise of “jury nullification”, but it is always possible for a juror in any case to simply hold out and prevent a unanimous verdict against the defendant, which would ultimately lead to a mistrial that would not acquit the defendant, which could lead to a retrial but in this particular case that might have not been practical, especially if it dragged out past November, Trump got re-elected and he sent a CIA hit squad to kill Attorney General Alvin Bragg. Which he could do, if you believe his lawyers at the Supreme Court.
The verdict only ended up taking less than two full court days before deliberation, and that much time probably because there were 34 charges, which was only possible because Trump committed that many crimes. The fact that he got convicted on all charges, with no exceptions, that quickly, just confirms the immortal verdict of Mark Slackmeyer: “That’s guilty! Guilty, Guilty, GUILTY!!!”
I mean, never mind that Trump is right in that there is a two-tiered justice system in that not only does it cater to people who have money and power, it does so in his case to a truly ridiculous degree. The Sackler family has real money and power, and they didn’t get to jerk the system around as much as Trump does. As with OJ Simpson, when you’re a star, they let you do it.
Which right there is why, all the Mainstream Media whining aside, it was a good thing not to have live cameras in the court.
Since no one was able to play to the cameras and try a court case in the realm of public opinion, everyone had to focus on the facts, and that is never good for Trump. The premise, from the start, was, if what Michael Cohen did (paying Stormy Daniels to not reveal an affair with Trump during the 2016 election, thus committing election fraud, and then covering up the event and his payoff thereafter) was a crime that deserved a prison sentence, why was it not a crime for Trump, who ordered the actions?
The prosecution started with National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, who like a couple other people might be described as a hostile witness – he was still fond of Trump, but told what he knew. Specifically, Pecker confirmed that it was the business of his company to publish stories about embarrassing celebrity scandals, such as with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s affairs, and also worked on Trump’s behalf to release negative stories about political rivals like Ben Carson and Ted Cruz. But when presented with the real gold mine of Trump’s sex scandals, Pecker deliberately took a financial hit to squelch them, not just out of friendship with Trump, but to help him win his election campaign (NOT to protect the feelings of Trump’s wife, given that nobody cared if the information came out after the election). Hope Hicks, another close friend of Trump, gave her assessment that Michael Cohen wasn’t the kind of guy who would just pay Trump’s paramour money from his own pocket without compensation, out of the goodness of his heart and without recognition. Which led to the testimony of Cohen himself, which was necessary because he was the only witness who could establish that Trump paid Cohen to pay Daniels and approved the scheme to reimburse Cohen in such a way that it would square with his taxes. (The only other potential witness who could corroborate this being Trump financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who is in prison on other fraud charges and even less credible.)
So after the defense challenged Cohen’s credibility, saying for instance that he misrepresented the nature of a phone call to Trump’s aide, prosecutors showed a photo of aide Keith Schiller with Trump just before the phone call was transcribed, demonstrating that Cohen could have had Schiller bring Trump to the phone at the same time. Then, after the prosecution rested, the defense brought one fact witness and the only other defense witness, Robert Costello, a lawyer who previously advised Cohen and had sought to represent himself as Cohen’s attorney in proceedings after the 2016 election. And this guy Costello started off by muttering contemptuous statements in testimony and then saying “strike” when challenged by Judge Juan Merchan, when only a judge can strike testimony and only the lawyer on the floor can withdraw his own question, not the testimony of a witness. (You would think an attorney would know that.) Then the next day in cross-examination, prosecutors entered evidence of conversations where Costello was acting with other members of the Trump team to keep Cohen from revealing what he knew after the election.
“Our issue is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the president,” Costello wrote in one 2018 email, referencing Trump and the then-president’s close aide Rudy Giuliani.” Thus giving further evidence to the assertion that this whole thing was a coverup of a crime, not simply “hush money” over a consensual affair, and that Trump committed the acts knowingly and willingly.
In one-and-a-half days of testimony, Costello was a better witness for the prosecution than Michael Cohen was in three days.
But that’s what you would expect, because Trump doesn’t hire attorneys to be attorneys. An attorney would counsel the client on his best interests and run the case in that regard, trying to appeal to the judge and jury. Trump hires attorneys to be his legal mouthpieces and say the belligerent stuff in court that he says outside the court, only with the official veneer of a law license. That’s why defense attorney Todd Blanche theatrically accused Cohen of lying – allowing a redirect that affirmed the prosecution’s position – and why the defense called Costello, who was only there to denigrate Cohen, the judge and the process, and also prompted a cross-examination that further confirmed the prosecutors’ case. Certainly a real defense team would have counseled Trump not to spend so much time sleeping in court, which he had done so consistently that it came off as a power move to show contempt for the trial, not to mention the judge and the jury who had to be there. Maybe that explains why just before the verdict, Trump whined that he didn’t know what the charges were. Well, Donnie, maybe if you’d been awake for any of that you would know. Of course it doesn’t help that you’re a natural simpleton who’s going senile on top of that.
Now that the jury is dismissed, Judge Merchan set a sentencing date for July 11, one week after Independence Day and just four days before the Republican National Convention, where Trump is the presumptive presidential nominee. So of course his attorneys are whining for a delay in the sentencing hearing so that the convicted felon’s schedule will not be interrupted. But it’s not like Trump is actually going to go to prison yet even if he is given that sentence, since he has the right to appeal. And some people, a few of whom are actually credible, thought that there were serious issues with the prosecution’s case, and that Trump has grounds for appeal.
Now as has been pointed out, Trump can still run for president and win, even if he’s sent to prison. This is actually a good thing. As I have said elsewhere, if this were a real dictatorship or one-party regime – like the countries Trump emulates – the party in charge could slap criminal charges on an opposition candidate who threatens to win, and simply eliminate the problem that way. It’s what Putin always does and what they did in Brazil to Lula da Silva, among other examples. Plus, if this country, including the various power elites that have been propping Trump up all this time, are still going to elect Trump after all THIS, frankly, this country will have failed the Darwin Test and won’t deserve to exist.
But, in the meantime, we have a new national holiday. Next May 30, I want to celebrate by having a party with lots of hamburgers, KFC and Diet Coke. Unless Trump actually does win re-election, in which case I will either be dead, eating prison food, or underground, eating rats.