Make Trump Earn His Martydom

 (By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari)

No matter how many negative firsts Donald Trump achieves (the only twice-impeached president, the only one to be indicted on criminal counts and, now, the only one to ever be convicted on felony criminal counts), it seems there's that rock-solid 30-35% of American voters who will never draw that red line or that Trump cannot cross. Trump never has to worry about the Rubicon because, to him, it simply doesn't exist.

     Last Thursday at precisely five o'clock, the Manhattan jury delivered its verdicts after just 12 hours of deliberation across two days. Before the jury sequestration had begun, Justice Juan Merchan had read to the jury a hefty 50 pages of instructions, including an injunction not to solely rely on Michael Cohen's testimony to determine Trump's guilt in several of the counts. Just hours before the verdict was read, the jury asked Justice Merchan to read the instructions to them again. Not unprecedented but certainly eyebrow-raising.

     In the end, as we all now know, Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts. The man who wanted to put Hillary Clinton behind bars eight years ago for crimes she didn't commit is now facing the very real possibility of jail or prison time himself. While his other three criminal trials are languishing in Washington, Florida and Georgia thanks to right wing defenders, it's a supreme irony that Trump was found guilty on nearly three dozen criminal counts of falsifying business records and violating campaign finance laws. In fact, Trump's native New York City. one he arguably helped build, is still the only state that has found him guilty or liable in civil and criminal court not once, not twice but three times.

     It's nice to delude oneself into believing with these verdicts that the rule of law reigns supreme but the fact is, that simply isn't true. Just the day before the verdict in Manhattan, Chief Justice John Roberts outright refused to meet with Senate Democrats regarding the moral turpitude of several of his justices. His excuse was the "separation of powers" clause in the Constitution, which is just a risible attempt to say one branch hasn't any enforcement mechanism over another. (Like the Legislative over the Judicial)

     The SCOTUS, of course, has agreed to hear Donald Trump's ridiculous claim of absolute immunity for any crime he'd commit (while steadfastly refusing to acknowledge having committed any crimes), which would, in effect, shred Roberts' claim of separation of powers (Such as the Judicial having any sway or influence over the Executive). And, as stated, because of Aileen Cannon, the best and only competent legal counsel Trump has working for him, Trump's stolen documents trial doesn't even have a docket number much less a trial date.

     Because of the Supreme Court's dithering on the immunity case (the court's session ends at the end of this month), the insurrection trial in Judge Tanya Chutkan's court is also on hold. A likely SCOTUS ruling (unsigned, of course) that Trump does have absolute immunity from committing any crimes, however serious, would effectively end Jack Smith's case in Manhattan. And who knows what the hell is going on in Fulton County, Georgia?

     So, don't be so quick to pronounce the rule of law as reigning supreme over the land.

    Ideally, the rule of law applies to all citizens, in every town, city and state, regardless of the defendant's standing. I say "ideally" because the truth is very different. A blind man or the most legally illiterate person could see that Trump was given latitude and deference that would've been unthinkable with any other criminal defendant. Every day, he'd lumber out to the hallway and whine to the press about how unfairly he was being treated, usually violating his gag order, even though at the end of each trial day he was allowed to take an armored limousine back to his life of luxury at Trump Tower or Bedminster across the Hudson. Or rounds of golf at Mar a Lago, courtesy of his private 757.

     And yet, to judge by pictures taken inside the court room, as the seven week-long hush money trial progressed, it seemed the court bailiffs began standing closer and closer behind Trump as if they were under orders to stop him from fleeing. The threat of jail is still a very real one. But the rule of law should reign supreme outside the borough of Manhattan, where, in short order, Trump is 0-3.

 

"I'd Love it."

 

Of course, the day after the conviction, Trump stood adjacent the golden escalator in Trump Tower on which he famously descended in June 2015 and delivered a "press conference" (Without taking questions) that lasted just over a half hour and lashed out at the judge once again despite the fact that Judge Merchan didn't indict him (the grand jury did) nor convicted him (the jury did). Merchan has complete control over the sentencing phase, however and Trump's last shot at getting any leniency will be on July 11th during allocution before sentencing.

    Allocution is a defendant's last chance to directly address the judge and to show contrition or remorse and, if this is successfully done, it'll usually result in a lighter sentence. Of course, it's up to the convicted defendant whether or not to avail themself of allocution.

     However, even those of us only casually knowledgeable of Trump's personality know that, to put it mildly, contrition and remorse are not in his skill set. In fact, it's likely that his DNA has a genome that prevents him from even effectively manufacturing either quality. It's likely, if he takes allocution, he'll use that as an opportunity to call Merchan a third rate, partisan hack and essentially shoot himself in the foot with a .50 caliber Barrett. During the Manhattan trial regarding falsifying business records, Judge Engoron threatened him with jail time and he threw up his hands and said, "I'd love it."

     And he would do this because he's obsessed with his own martyrdom. But Trump is a man who, until this past year, has evaded legal accountability as skillfully as he'd avoided paying taxes all these decades. He was treated with kid gloves and, even after violating Judge Merchan's gag order at least 10 times, it resulted in no more than $10,000 in fines. He's a thin-skinned, petulant little boy in a bloated old fat man's body who screeches at even mild criticism much less actual comeuppance.

     In short, Trump doesn't know what it feels like to be a true martyr nor would he want to. I guarantee you if Trump lived in the Middle Ages and was even just shown the crude, filthy instruments of torture used by the Spanish Inquisition, he'd immediately be reduced to a sloppy pile of urine, vomit and fecal matter.

    As with everything else in life, Trump expects everything to be handed to him including his martyrdom. To Trump, establishing martyrdom consists largely if not exclusively in getting rubes to throw money at his well-shined shoes (According to the campaign, he's hauled in $52.8 million in the first 24 hours after the verdict, which is nearly two million more than the Biden campaign took in during the entire month of May). But that's not martyrdom, not even cheap martyrdom. 

    No, Trump wants to be a martyr with a putter in his hand, living in his gaudy faux gold environments replete with overdone steaks with ketchup and oceans of Diet Coke. He wants the pity of the American people while pretending he's still the president and scuttling bipartisan legislation with a single post on Truth Social.

     If he takes allocution, and I dearly hope he does, his inner scorpion will come out and he'll literally dare the judge to put him in jail. And, for once, I say if that's what Trump wants, then that's what he should get.

     Let him earn his martyrdom.