A Sad Day For America, Indeed

 

     Trump was very sad and pathetic during allocution right before his "sentencing". Allocution is when a criminal defendant gets to address the judge just prior to sentencing. It's the defendant's final chance to throw themselves on the mercy of the court and often, a judge will hand down a lesser sentence than they'd originally intended if the defendant shows any convincing remorse or contrition.

     Naturally, Donald Trump showed none of that because Donald Trump is genetically incapable of accepting blame for anything even when convicted by a jury of his peers.

     Last night, in a rare lack of support for Trump, the right wing-leaning Supreme Court refused to let Trump wait for his sentencing until after the inauguration in 10 days. In the 5-4 ruling, the SCOTUS said that Trump must face the music just like anyone else. Chief Justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett sided with Kagan, Jackson and Sotomayor.

     Everyone knew Trump wouldn't get any jail time. Judge Juan Merchan even said so. When you're allowed to show up virtually via Zoom, it's pretty much guaranteed you're not going to be taken into custody.

     People expected there would be verbal pyrotechnics on Trump's part during the allocution phase. This joke of a sentencing essentially means the very narrow gag order on Trump has been lifted since the trial's over. During the trial last year, Trump basically threatened everyone but the courthouse's janitor, including Merchan, his daughter, his clerk, the District Attorney, everyone. Then he whined when he got a very narrow gag order slapped on him.

     So what happened this morning?

     Well, rather than verbal pyrotechnics, Trump was reduced to whining to Merchan about the unfairness of it all. In fact this is what he said:

     "This has been a very terrible experience. It was done to damage my reputation so I would lose the election. I am totally innocent. I did nothing wrong."

     Merchan then gave him a "sentence" of “unconditional discharge,” which just means that he's now officially a convicted felon in the eyes of New York State and anyone who cares to pick up a newspaper or click on a link.

     Of course, Trump, who loathes the very concept of accountability, will appeal the ruling but it doesn't matter. He's always going to be known as the first person to take the oath of the presidency as a convicted felon.

     But the “unconditional discharge” is basically a black stain on his reputation, such as it is, nothing more. It's not a suspended sentence, it's not supervised release or parole, not even a slap on a wrist. He wasn't told to stand in a corner and to think about what he did. He wasn't made to go to the neighbor's house and apologize for putting a baseball through their bay window.

     Nothing.

     Of course, his mouthpiece, Todd Blanche, who never met an ambulance he couldn't catch, whined to the judge, "It’s a very sad day. It’s a sad day for President Trump and his family and his friends, but it’s also, in counsel’s view, a sad day for this country.”

     Yes, Todd. It's a very sad day for America when a one man crime wave can finally get convicted eight years after the fact on 34 counts by a jury of his peers and still get "elected" then sworn in as president without even seeing the inside of a courtroom during the so-called sentencing phase, so he can then pardon potentially many hundreds of other convicted criminals.

     It's a very sad day, indeed.