30 May 2024 was a good day for America

By Ande Jacobson

On 30 May 2024, a jury in Manhattan unanimously convicted Donald J. Trump, a former U.S. president, of 34 counts in his first criminal trial. Some might think this was a sad day because for the first time, a former president was tried and convicted in a criminal proceeding. That former president is now a convicted felon, but it’s not necessarily a sad day in our history. The sad part really is that a former president would commit crimes in the way that this one has, but through both civil and criminal trials, we are showing the nation and the world that nobody is above the law, not even a former president, and that’s a very good thing.

The U.S. was founded as and still is a nation based on the rule of law as the authority that all in the country must abide by. That authority isn’t a king, or a dictator, or a deity, it is based on the Constitution written by the nation’s founders and expanded upon through amendments and legislation building on its revolutionary (for its time) foundation. The premise that all are equal under the law is an ideal that the nation has strived for throughout its history despite that history showing how imperfectly we have lived up to that ideal in some cases. As a nation we still have a ways to go, but holding a former president accountable for his crimes is something not to lament but to take pride in.

When I was growing up, we studied Watergate in school as it was happening. It made for a somewhat unusual, memorable, educational, and at the time terrifying, introduction to civics. Through that process, we gained a solid understanding of how our government was supposed to work. The Watergate story is well-known to those who’ve paid attention to our modern history. In 1974, we had another president (Nixon) who committed crimes to cheat to win the 1972 presidential election which pale in comparison to the wide array of crimes that Trump is alleged to have committed, but who resigned at the urging of his own party as a result of his wrong doing. Instead of facing judgement through the courts, his successor pardoned him before any charges could be brought. That did the nation a huge disservice. It put Nixon above the law under the guise of “letting the nation heal.” Had that pardon not been conferred, it’s likely that Nixon would have been tried and convicted, and we may never have had Trump as a president, but that didn’t happen. We did have Trump as a president winning the Electoral College in 2016, but losing the popular vote by a significant margin in every election he’s run in so far.

While there is well-documented evidence of Trump’s criminal activities long before his entry into politics, he hadn’t been brought to trial in a criminal proceeding until now. He has been indicted four times for a total of 88 charges in four cases across four different jurisdictions (two state, two federal). The first of those four trials has run to verdict (sentencing is scheduled for 11 July 2024), and the jury of his peers, of 12 regular Americans, reviewed the evidence, deliberated for about 10 hours across two days, and rendered their decision – guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in furtherance of another crime. Trump had been indicted by a grand jury of regular Americans in Manhattan a year before the trial began. That was a fairly quick progression all things considered.

That the grand jury and then the trial jury took their jobs seriously is encouraging. It shows that the justice system is still in place. The judge in the trial, NY Supreme Court Justice Juan M. Merchan, took his job seriously as did the prosecution. The defense played some games along the way, likely at the urging of the defendant, but Justice Merchan ran an efficient and well-controlled courtroom despite the disruptions. All motions were fairly considered and ruled upon. Defendant Trump hasn’t behaved like any normal defendant though. He’s defied the court at every turn flouting the pretrial release conditions and the limited gag order in place to protect the integrity of the trial and the safety of the participants. He’s slept through large portions of the trail, although to be fair, there could be some organic reasons for that particularly if were medicated to keep his behavior under some semblance of control. If that were the case, those types of medications often cause drowsiness, so his naps could almost be forgiven. His flagrant disregard for decorum surrounding the trial cannot. Attacking court personnel and witnesses at every turn whenever a microphone or keyboard/phone was present cannot be forgiven or forgotten. Trump did all he could to play political games signaling dangerous/violent desires to his followers and putting people’s lives in danger. This is not normal behavior and could have an impact on his sentence, though time will tell if that comes to pass. Through the trial, he was found in contempt multiple times for violating the limited gag order and was fined to the maximum allowed by NY law along the way.

As an American watching this all unfold, I’ve been horrified but not surprised at the former president’s behavior. Sadly, ranting is his go to schtick, and it plays well to his base. It doesn’t play well to the rest of the public though, and therein lies the question we all face. He is the frontrunner to be the GOP candidate for president in this year’s election. That anybody still supports him given all that is now known about him and his objectives, it’s somewhat unfathomable for those in touch with reality that he has any support at all, but this is a political, not judicial issue.

The judicial side is working mostly as it should. The challenges we face as a nation are political and ideological in nature, and the courts cannot fix political problems. Only the voters can do that, but that requires that voters be informed on not only the policies and issues ahead, but that they do their due diligence in picking the candidates they support. The GOP frontrunner for president is a convicted felon who has been convicted for fraudulently trying to influence the 2016 election. This convicted felon sees the judicial system as a plaything of the president, not as an independent, coequal branch of the government. Many of his rants telegraph his plans were he to win the election, and they are terrifying.

Thinking back to 1974, a couple of things stand out above all others. Although Nixon never admitted his wrongdoing or was held accountable in court, he did resign at the urging of his own party. With Trump, the GOP members of Congress have refused to do their jobs in holding the now former president accountable. Through two impeachments the GOP refused to provide the check that they are chartered to provide via the Constitution instead choosing fealty to Trump’s whims. Through the trial, several of their more extreme members have joined him in tearing down the justice system. This is a political, not judicial problem that we the people have to address. Those members of Congress represent us, and it’s incumbent on us all to choose our representation wisely. Democracy can only survive if enough of the electorate wants it to. If not, the stated goal of the GOP through their Project 2025 platform is to push the U.S. away from democracy and into a theocratic autocracy where we wouldn’t be equal under the law in direct violation of the Constitution.

I am encouraged and even proud as an American that the prosecution, the grand jury, the judge, the witnesses, the trial jury, and yes even the defense (vigorously, though with questionable integrity at times) did their jobs in this historic first criminal trial of a former president. It’s still an open question whether the voters will do their jobs in the 2024 general election.

Vote blue this fall to save our democracy. Show the nation and the world that we are still striving toward the ideals set forth by our Constitution, and that democracy can work and work well.

References:

https://ww2.nycourts.gov/people-v-donald-j-trump-criminal-37026
https://manhattanda.org/district-attorney-bragg-announces-34-count-felony-indictment-of-former-president-donald-j-trump/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal
https://agoodreedreview.com/2024/05/14/then-and-now/
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-man-of-his-convictions