End of a half century on the lam
Donald Trump woke up in the city that never sleeps today, not to find he was king of the hill but rather that the towering heap of septic legal jeopardy he’s been building for 50 years had finally begun to cast his life in shadows.
Am I happy about it?
Well yes, thanks for asking. Not so much for me, but yeah, for me, but also for the law, and for everyday rule followers everywhere, for people who stop at stop signs, people who pay taxes, people who are careful not to carry 13 items into the 12-itemsor-less lane, people who return library books on time, and no, I’m not saying Trump consistently fails to return his library books on time because don’t make me laugh, and sure, I’m even happy for people who pay hush money to their porn star mistresses in a timely manner using the proper business accounting protocols.
Because Trump has never been one of those people. His view has always been that rules are for schmucks, whether it’s the rule of law or the rules of golf. Those are for other people.
What makes this day so historic is not that Trump becomes the first U.S. president ever arraigned, or that he’s the first U. S. president ever charged with two or three dozen felonies, or that he’s the first U.S president ever indicted and charged with two or three dozen felonies after having been impeached not once but twice. It’s because this is the day the rule of law can finally look itself in the mirror again after a half century of flailing helplessly at Trumpian skullduggery.
This is the day America can at last formally reject the carcinogenic axiom we’ve all come to learn and memorize and despise: No One Is Above The Law Except Donald Trump.
But 50 years of deny deny deny, delay delay delay, sue, countersue, and demonize is not a habit that either Trump or the law can snap without effort. It’s true that law enforcement entities at every level of government have been dancing with Trump since October of 1973, when he and his father Fred were first charged by federal prosecutors with conspiring to keep Blacks from renting Trump’s New York apartments. But that’s five decades of muscle memory at work with how the law treats Trump, and it was still evident even on this historic Tuesday.
First, there was this business about cameras, with the Trump camp insisting that no TV cameras be present in the courtroom for Trump’s arraignment, because, hilariously, they could create a “circus-like” atmosphere. See also, last 50 years. Would that there had been no TV cameras present for “The Apprentice.”
But Judge Juan Merchan granted Trump’s request.
Rolling Stone, citing a law enforcement source Monday, said Trump was offered a no fuss Mar- a- Lago arraignment on Zoom, but opted for the two-day Manhattan spectacle still in progress. Grifters gonna grift.
Then it was reported there’d be no mug shot of Trump that would be made public, no handcuffs because he’s “not a flight risk or a threat to court personnel,” and no bail because he has no prior offenses.
These velvet glove measures feel awfully familiar, no? I’m loath to tell prosecutors what to do, but:
On the not-a-flight-risk point, Your Honor, the man has his own airplane.
On the not- a- threat point, Your Honor, the man called the District Attorney an “animal” on social media and shared an article of himself wielding a baseball bat next to an image of the D.A.’s head.
On the no-prior-offenses, Your Honor, you sat here not four months ago while the Trump Organization got convicted on 17 counts of criminal tax fraud, conspiracy, and falsifying business records and was fined $1.6 million, the maximum allowable. Those sound suspiciously like offenses.
Of course, regardless of today’s particulars, the case in question remains the Stormy Daniels hush- money affair, which won’t go to trial for a month of Tuesdays, if then. But Trump’s swarm of legal pursuers can now break into a sprint at the sound of the Manhattan D.A.’s starter pistol.
Trump could be back in Manhattan only three weeks from today for his trial in the matter of E. Jean Carroll, the New York writer who claims Trump raped her in a dressing room at Bergdorf-Goodman and then defamed her. That case could bring a verdict as early as May.
Still to come, pending charges related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, the Mar-a-Lago documents case, and the “perfect” Georgia phone call in which Trump said — on tape — he needed to “find” one more than the exact number of votes by which he lost the state to Joe Biden in 2020.
Looks like it’s not just up to you, New York, New York.