It’s now up to a jury of 12 New Yorkers to determine whether former President Donald Trump is guilty of conspiring to falsify business records to cover up hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election.
This truly is an historic moment and could represent the only opportunity before November’s election for our judicial system to deliver long-delayed justice for the seething, hateful sociopath whose shadow has darkened our country for nearly a decade and whose return to the White House would imperil our democracy.
And while I have written that we can’t expect the court system to save us from a Trump victory over President Joe Biden — and everything awful that represents — a conviction on criminal counts could matter to enough voters going to the polls 160 days from now.
Trump sure thinks a guilty verdict is coming. After the jury began deliberating late Wednesday morning following Justice Juan Merchan’s instructions, the insurrectionist-in-chief whined to reporters that “Mother Teresa could not beat the charges.”
As for what to expect from the jury, unless a MAGA cultist was able to sneak on the panel, I’m confident we will see a conviction on some of the 34 counts for which Trump was charged. The prosecution has the receipts.
The defense, in contrast, was reduced to claiming that no one is telling the truth in this case except Trump and anyone who complimented his golf game. Further, Trump conclusively proved this when he was sworn in to testify strongly that he has being treated very unfairly and that he had no idea what former personal attorney and fixer Michael Cohen and Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg were doing behind his back because Trump doesn’t have time to sweat the little details. Oh, wait; he didn’t testify.
My odds:
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100% chance of a guilty verdict on at least some counts
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0% chance of a hung jury on all counts
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0% chance of an acquittal on all charges
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50% chance of a verdict by the end of this week
Caveat: I was 90% confident that O.J. Simpson was going to be found guilty in his murder trial. So my track record in huge cases admittedly is underwhelming.
Finally, in what may be the most audacious and shameless example of projection ever heard in a courtroom, the lead defense attorney for Donald Trump — former president and lifelong serial mass fabricator — proclaimed to jurors during closing arguments that Cohen, a key prosecution witness who made the initial payments to Daniels before getting reimbursed by Trump, is the “greatest liar of all time.”
To drive home his point, Todd Blanche — who, remember, represents the world’s biggest narcissist and sore winner — even unveiled a clever acronym for that disparaging phrase: Michael Cohen, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is the G.L.O.A.T. (Rim shot!)
This is the noble cause that motivated Blanche to leave his prestigious Wall Street law firm: Turning reality on its head in service to Trump’s frantic efforts to avoid accountability for his crimes, lies, and cover-ups. Blanche will pay for his poor decision, as have all of Trump’s legal representatives. Because, as Lincoln Project co-founder Rick Wilson has noted, everything Trump touches dies. Including legal careers.
Let’s hope a guilty verdict is the beginning of the end for this toxic period in our country’s history.
(From Project Orange: Saving Democracy From the Trump-MAGA Cult)
