Things Innocent Men Don't Do

     It's sort of ironic that Donald Trump greatly benefits from not living in the banana republic into which he wants to turn the United States.

     While we may grumble about the two-tiered criminal justice system we have and at how horribly wrong it gets things (African Americans tend to get harsher prison sentences than whites who commit the same offenses), one thing no one can deny is that it's methodical and slow-moving for a reason.

     Because, with all his courtroom antics, impromptu press conferences and often illiterate and defamatory screeds on Truth Social, he would've been found guilty, with few or no appeals or he would've been summarily executed. Look how quickly Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife were executed after their conviction.

     But the criminal justice system and its civil analog don't generally rush to judgment. There are procedures, a process by which all parties have to abide. The point is that the prosecution and defense have adequate time to prepare their cases, that both sides have the same evidence. That the rights of all parties are respected, in other words.

     That's never truer than in the case of Donald Trump. The very fact that he's allowed to fly back to Palm Beach in his private jumbo jet and play golf whenever he feels like it is proof of that two-tiered system of justice, just not in the way right wingers scream about.

     In short, he's doing all the things a guilty man does. He screams at the injustice of it all, he spits venom at judges, prosecutors, law clerks. An innocent man, one with some impulse control, would wisely accept counsel and wait for his day in court. He'd welcome the opportunity to clear his name in a court of law.

     Not Trump. With Trump, it's delay, delay, delay. Earlier in his life, when he was getting nine figure loans from Wall Street banks then, after they cut him off in the early 90s, Deutsche Bank, Trump could comfortably file nuisance lawsuits and fight creditors knowing they didn't have the money to outlast his lawyers. Who cared that he was spending borrowed money?

     Now, he doesn't have that latitude. It's abundantly obvious that Trump wouldn't even have a legal defense team on any front if he wasn't squandering other peoples' money who had contributed to his 2024 campaign. Trump knows he can spend that money. Unless he dies of apoplexy during one of his late night all caps rants, he'll sail to the GOP nomination and face Joe Biden in the general. He's in the unique position of being a presidential candidate who doesn't need money because he has a cult.

     But, again, he's falling back on the tried-and-true delay tactics. He has presidential immunity, which is as good as a guilty plea. I'm running for office, for Pete's sake. My mother in law's dead. Basically, any and every trick in the book and his lickspittle lawyers are only too glad to file these ridiculous motions even at risk to their reputations and even their law licenses. As long as the billable hours are paid and the checks clear.

     But the foot-dragging just delays the inevitable and everyone knows it. He keeps going through appellate courts, state supreme courts and, of course, the SCOTUS that's one third composed of his picks. And the SCOTUS hasn't helped him out in any meaningful way.

     He's plainly desperate and lashing out like a cornered, wounded animal. I've never seen a criminal defendant, let alone a civil defendant, lash out, repeatedly, at a law clerk. I've never seen a defendant impugn the sex life of one of his prosecutors as he has with Fani Willis. And yet, while most of us would be muzzled with caste iron, Trump never has to worry about more than just narrow gag orders because God forbid his First Amendment rights should be violated.

     And, again, by claiming presidential immunity that he should know he doesn't have, Trump isn't arguing his innocence as much as he's defending his own criminality. He has no executive privilege, he has no post-presidential immunity, he has no defense.

     So, bluster is all he has, Bluster. Outright lies and distortions. Character assassination. Conspiracy theories. Desperately hoping that he can get all these court cases delayed until after the election, which he has to win (although he wouldn't be able to do a damned thing in the case of Fulton County). Which is further proof that he's admitting to his guilt.

     In other words, things an innocent man wouldn't say or do.