Follow this authorEugene Robinson's opinions
Follow
Trump is wrong, of course, when he claims that all his legal woes are nothing but “election interference” meant to damage his prospects against President Biden in November. Anyone who’s paid attention to Trump’s political trajectory should seriously doubt that even multiple convictions, on the most serious charges, would have much impact one way or the other. The word “shame” has no meaning in the Trump political universe.
Trump is right, however, when he says we have a “rigged” and “two-tiered” justice system. But it’s rigged in favor of people like him. Defendants who are rich, famous and powerful get to fly first-class.
Advertisement
Recall how we got here: Some legal analysts bemoan the fact that this New York case — stemming from a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, allegedly disguised in an illegal manner — is the first to go to trial. The allegations are hardly trivial: Trump’s actions squelched embarrassing information that might have impacted the outcome of his race against Hillary Clinton. In language Trump would understand, that could be called “election interference.”
Yes, the charges in the other cases involve weightier matters of state: the role Trump played in plotting to overthrow the 2020 election and inspiring the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection; the role he played in trying to reverse the election result in the state of Georgia specifically; and his alleged unlawful hoarding of highly sensitive classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a chandeliered bathroom.
But why are those trials delayed? Because Trump took advantage of our two-tiered justice system to slow them down.
Advertisement
Attorney General Merrick Garland bears some responsibility in the Jan. 6 case as he waited far too long to even begin an investigation of Trump’s possible culpability. Granted, no Justice Department had ever put a former president on trial. But no president had ever allegedly conspired to cling to power by overturning or blocking certification of an election he had lost.
Once charges against Trump were finally brought, though, Trump had the money to hire phalanxes of lawyers who filed motion after motion to slow everything down. When the trial judge ruled against novel and fanciful legal arguments — that a president has “absolute immunity” against criminal prosecution, for example — Trump could pay his lawyers to appeal. And then to appeal again, all the way to the Supreme Court.
Likewise, in the classified documents case, Trump has employed lawyers to gum up the works with a blizzard of pretrial motions. It also happens that the inexperienced judge presiding over that case was appointed to the federal bench by Trump — an advantage no other defendant has had in the history of U.S. jurisprudence.
Advertisement
In Georgia, Trump had the wherewithal to hire lawyers who investigated the prosecutors and discovered a personal relationship they could paint as a potential conflict of interest. No overworked public defender would have done that. The case survives, but after months of delay.
And how has Trump used all this time he bought? To viciously attack the judges (except the friendly one in Florida), prosecutors and potential jurors who dare to hold him accountable. He has defied the spirit and possibly the letter of gag orders, including one imposed by Merchan. A less rich, less famous, less powerful defendant would have been fined or jailed for contempt of court.
But the system is finally working. Jury selection has begun in “The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.” Whether he’s convicted or acquitted, that sounds like justice.
Share Comments
Popular opinions articles
HAND CURATED
- Opinion|Now it’s up to Israel: De-escalate or retaliate against Iran?April 14, 2024Opinion|Now it’s up to Israel: De-escalate or retaliate against Iran?April 14, 2024
- Opinion|How to break upApril 11, 2024Opinion|How to break upApril 11, 2024
- Opinion|How Gen Z took over incel slangApril 11, 2024Opinion|How Gen Z took over incel slangApril 11, 2024
View 3 more stories Sign up
Showtime, at last. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president got underway Monday, with Donald Trump sitting at the defense table in a New York courtroom — and proving that somehow, eventually, our justice system does work.
Just hours earlier, Trump had been on social media hurling a last-ditch salvo of invective in his attempt to intimidate New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and the state of New York from holding him accountable. Trump railed against “a totally conflicted Judge, a Corrupt Prosecutor, a Legal System in CHAOS, a State being overrun by violent crime and corruption, and Crooked Joe Biden’s henchmen … .” Yada, yada, yada.
It didn’t work. Merchan’s first order of business was to deny a motion by Trump’s lawyers that he remove himself from the case. Merchan ruled that the demand was filled with “innuendos and unsupported speculation” and said ethics rules mandate that a judge is “obligated not to recuse himself when it’s not called for.”
Thank you, your honor, for not letting yourself be bullied. Thanks also to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg for being prepared to move ahead with this prosecution after Trump’s three other trials — two on federal charges, one on state charges in Georgia — got delayed.
Trump is wrong, of course, when he claims that all his legal woes are nothing but “election interference” meant to damage his prospects against President Biden in November. Anyone who’s paid attention to Trump’s political trajectory should seriously doubt that even multiple convictions, on the most serious charges, would have much impact one way or the other. The word “shame” has no meaning in the Trump political universe.
Trump is right, however, when he says we have a “rigged” and “two-tiered” justice system. But it’s rigged in favor of people like him. Defendants who are rich, famous and powerful get to fly first-class.
Recall how we got here: Some legal analysts bemoan the fact that this New York case — stemming from a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, allegedly disguised in an illegal manner — is the first to go to trial. The allegations are hardly trivial: Trump’s actions squelched embarrassing information that might have impacted the outcome of his race against Hillary Clinton. In language Trump would understand, that could be called “election interference.”
Yes, the charges in the other cases involve weightier matters of state: the role Trump played in plotting to overthrow the 2020 election and inspiring the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection; the role he played in trying to reverse the election result in the state of Georgia specifically; and his alleged unlawful hoarding of highly sensitive classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a chandeliered bathroom.
But why are those trials delayed? Because Trump took advantage of our two-tiered justice system to slow them down.
Attorney General Merrick Garland bears some responsibility in the Jan. 6 case as he waited far too long to even begin an investigation of Trump’s possible culpability. Granted, no Justice Department had ever put a former president on trial. But no president had ever allegedly conspired to cling to power by overturning or blocking certification of an election he had lost.
Once charges against Trump were finally brought, though, Trump had the money to hire phalanxes of lawyers who filed motion after motion to slow everything down. When the trial judge ruled against novel and fanciful legal arguments — that a president has “absolute immunity” against criminal prosecution, for example — Trump could pay his lawyers to appeal. And then to appeal again, all the way to the Supreme Court.
Likewise, in the classified documents case, Trump has employed lawyers to gum up the works with a blizzard of pretrial motions. It also happens that the inexperienced judge presiding over that case was appointed to the federal bench by Trump — an advantage no other defendant has had in the history of U.S. jurisprudence.
In Georgia, Trump had the wherewithal to hire lawyers who investigated the prosecutors and discovered a personal relationship they could paint as a potential conflict of interest. No overworked public defender would have done that. The case survives, but after months of delay.
And how has Trump used all this time he bought? To viciously attack the judges (except the friendly one in Florida), prosecutors and potential jurors who dare to hold him accountable. He has defied the spirit and possibly the letter of gag orders, including one imposed by Merchan. A less rich, less famous, less powerful defendant would have been fined or jailed for contempt of court.
But the system is finally working. Jury selection has begun in “The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump.” Whether he’s convicted or acquitted, that sounds like justice.
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
