Today former US President Trump has once again made history as he was found guilty on all 34 criminal counts of falsification of business records in NYC.
Historic day and mixed emotions
Although a lot of people who dislike Trump’s guts are gleefully celebrating, this is a sad day for America. And not because it is Trump as the person, but it is because it is a person who had at some point held the highest office in our land. Trump is no stranger to controversy, but he largely had been able to get out unscathed. His “luck” ran out on this case.
Trump was found guilty in all 34 criminal counts of falsification of business records – each charge is a felony. But we won’t know the actual sentencing until July 11, 2024. Already you can see the MAGA-verse experiencing a collective meltdown ranging from mental gymnastics to violently charged epithets. Sadly, that is not unexpected. If you’ve been reading what I write, then you know that I mention how emotions are highly exploitable.
I for one don’t feel happy about Trump being convicted, but I am relieved he is. Trump was clearly guilty, he had his days in court, several weeks in fact – although he was asleep and passing gas [reportedly] for most of the trial. I’m almost certain that somewhere in the back of his mind he thought that he could just sleep it over and it would be over without much trouble – like pretty much EVERYTHING else he has gotten away with for so long.
But the decision reached by the jury today is not unexpected. Trump’s defense team was not ready at all to fight this case, and Trump is also [reportedly] notoriously difficult to work with… aside from the fact he does not pay his legal bills. Unless you’re Alina Habba, who by the way costed him close to half a billion dollars – which Trump is yet to pay a single red cent. I would not be surprised if we fast forward a little while and Trump refuses to pay this team too – much like he never paid even the likes of Rudy Guiliani for his legal work.
In any case, Trump said that they silenced him. Yet he refused to speak when it would have mattered – he pleaded the fifth, which is his right, but why would he – unless he knew that the cross-examination would corner him via his own words. It is likely also the case because neither of his children, nor anybody in his orbit for that matter took the stand. The only one who did was Costello, and he was awful – and likely a catalyst that made Trump’s case go from bad to worse.
Trump did have a gag order, but this was to prevent him from attacking the jury, judge, and witnesses – an order he violated about 10 times or so, and was found in contempt of court. I’m not sure if these will be factored in the sentencing. Regardless, Trumps acolytes continued the attacks the gag order was trying to prevent. The reason for the gag order is because some of Trump’s followers tend to become violent. This is well-documented. Hence the gag order to protect against violence.
A quick summary of the NY Criminal Trial
Like or dislike Trump is not the problem, the problem is that there was demonstrable evidence to prove a criminal pattern of misconduct. The last witness for this case was Robert Costello, whom by many has been viewed as a Trump loyalist – even if he denies it. But then again actions speak louder than words. Just a few days before he was on the witness stand for Trump, Costello was in Capitol Hill talking smack about Michael Cohen. By the way, Costello was the ONLY witness the defense brought to the stand. Why? Why indeed…
For several days Trump’s acolytes and even Trump himself stated that he would testify on his own criminal trial. He did not, and it is interesting not because he pleaded the fifth, but because Costello was a defense witness, and he essentially torpedoed the entire defense’s argument. Fun factoid, it is been said that it is Trump himself who wanted Costello on the stand against the advice from his attorneys.
The prosecution and defense rested without Trump or any of those on Trump’s orbit taking the stand, and then everyone was off for the long weekend into Memorial Day. The closing arguments followed after the holiday. The defense took about four hours to defend Trump. They never called any additional witnesses. Some of Trump’s offspring showed up on the last day – but it is worth noting that his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka were absent all these weeks, and of course did not show up to the verdict either.
The prosecution took several hours to go very pragmatically through every piece of evidence, and this of course destroyed the already weak arguments posed by Trump’s defense team. Trump’s team by the way was admonished for making a lot of mistakes during the proceedings. You would think that a better team of attorneys would be lining up behind an ex-president. Of course, that is not the case – and not only because Trump is notorious for not paying his legal fees – but also because tons of his former attorneys were either disbarred and/or incarcerated.
It was up to a jury of 12 to deliberate on Trump’s fate. There were a couple of times where they requested additional information in accordance with the regulations. And in about 12 hours they unanimously reached the verdict of guilty on all 34 counts. I thought for a moment we might have a hung-jury, and I’m sure Trump has hoping for it. But as I said, the defense was not ready to excel in such a case, and Costello really screwed the pooch with his pedantic testimony.
The 34 criminal charges for this trial were directly linked to falsification of business records, and how this was instrumental in influencing the 2016 election. The hush-money to porn-star Stormy Daniels aggravated the situation, in the sense that it gave context to Trump’s character and motive – but the awkward sex was not the worst part of the trial, criminally speaking. But it is what gets the most clicks.
Costello was such a terribly unlikeable witness that he made Michael Cohen look noble in comparison. Costello reportedly was contentious, staring down at the judge, and what somebody summarized as pretty much being a condescending asshole. I was not in the courtroom, so I cannot say if that is the case. But his disruptive conduct caused the judge to clear the courtroom and be admonished for improper decorum – Costello himself is an attorney, and should’ve known better.
During this admonishing the judge stated that if Costello does not rectify his decorum in the courtroom his testimony would be stricken off the record. Which to be honest, that would have been better for the Trump defense because during the cross examination it was found that he was instrumental in the subsequent downfall for Micheal Cohen. How? Well, like this:
The Michael Cohen character arc
In the event you were not aware of, Michael Cohen was the prosecution’s star witness. Cohen used to be Trump’s lawyer and “fixer” – Cohen himself was a huge fan of Trump and he actually enjoyed working for him. Cohen was ruthless, a bully, and had indeed gone through great lengths to do Trump’s bidding. That included using his (Cohen’s) own money to pay Stormy Daniels.
Yes, Cohen got a home-equity loan, putting his own family financial stability and house at risk to get $130.000 that were paid to Stormy Daniels to help Trump keep this expense off his books. Eventually (long time after) Cohen got repaid more than 400-grand, but it was this convoluted and shady process what created so much trouble for Trump, and was ultimately instrumental to his conviction.
Stormy Daniels had a very short and unpleasant – though somehow consensual sexual encounter with Trump. This happened while Trump’s third wife Melania was at home with their at-the-time newborn child Barron. According to the testimony Trump did not really care if Melania found out about having sex with Stormy, because he has a pattern of cheating, but Stormy was going to go public before the 2016 election – that caused Trump to pursue buying Stormy’s story – but of course in normal Trump fashion he dragged his feet regarding the payment part.
The story of a sexual encounter Stormy occurred about a decade prior to the 2016 campaign. However, there was the now infamous “Grab them by the pussy” tape where Trump bragged to Billy Bush that he would grab women’s genitals and kiss them without consent, because he was able to get away with it due the fact, he was a celebrity. Stormy had signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to prevent her from describing this rather awkward sexual encounter with Trump.
Trump is no stranger to a lot of instances of sexual misconduct. In fact, he was found legally liable for rape for the E. J. Carroll case, which also happened several years ago. So yes, Trump was civilly liable for rape – hence Trump is also a rapist, aside from being a convicted felon.
Trump still has not paid the millions of dollars he owes E. J. Carroll, and to add insult to injury to Trump’s ego lack of strategic foresight, Trump is actually paying that much because he defamed Carroll, and he very publicly doubled down on it – and then all other shady stories came to light. Afterall, the rape charges themselves had passed the statute of limitations. What got Trump in hot water is his big mouth repeatedly defaming Carroll.
Although the E. J. Carroll case was not part of the current case legally speaking, it does speak volumes about Trump’s pattern of misconduct, and his sense of entitlement – because he has been able to get away with these situations for decades. But the fact is that justice – although very slow in the USA, is bringing all these situations to light – to see the Trump personality in proper context.
But make no mistake, all this controversy stemmed at the behest and direction of Trump himself. So, no, Joe Biden has absolutely nothing to do with these Trump trials. Trump was afforded his days in court – and will be afforded more days for his other upcoming criminal trials. But Trump does keep trying to influence the attorney’s decision making – and that has been backfiring in a dramatic and exponential manner. Michael Cohen knows firsthand Trump’s tactics, and he has been instrumental in bringing these otherwise buried stories to light.
Cohen was also a bully to Stormy back then, and of course Stormy and Cohen went to court at the beginning of the Trump presidency. At first, when Cohen was kissing Trump’s butt, Trump would go out and Tweet-rage on Cohen’s defense. That’s where Costello comes in. Cohen was in serious legal trouble, and this scandal had national and international attention – and the majority of Americans for and against Trump were not rooting for Cohen. Costello was then “volunteering” as Cohen’s legal advisor – not quite as an attorney, but we’ve learned that Costello was very much working for Trump and Rudy Guiliani.
Cohen was put in a situation where his own cognitive dissidence in order to protect Trump caused him to commit perjury in front of Congress and in other legal proceedings. For these same crimes Trump was facing on this last trial Cohen ended up in Prison a few years back. When it seemed that Cohen was hung out to dry, Trump disavowed him and let him to take the fall. This of course came back to haunt Trump because Cohen was not only looking to get some sort of revenge, but to do so because that would be the right thing to do as a concerned Citizen. Funny how the script flipped.
Cohen was a piece of work before his downfall. He bullied and intimidated people, conducted all kinds of lying and shady deals, and would go to the end of the world to help Trump remain unscathed. In other words, he was the perfect useful fool, and like any useful fool, the moment he became inconvenient he was hastily disposed of by Trump. What Trump did not realize is that Cohen would regain a conscience, swallow his pride, and seek to become the voice that explained Trump’s way of thinking.
Cohen was instrumental in some of the last cases Trump has lost. The civil case that highlighted the corruption from the Trump organization showed how Trump scammed customers and the government. And for this last case with the business records, you can see how these shady business practices were normalized in Trump’s orbit. However, they knew those were shady, hence they tried to hide their tracks – they were just not very good at it. Then again, a lie no matter how well-crafted it never adds up.
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So, what’s next?
Hard to tell, in the sense that a lot of his fervent supporters are going to be hitting the proverbial brick wall – and people are complex. So, their behavior might be very different after they smack the wall. For some it will be traumatic.
Trump has been running on being the “law and order” President – and he requested all kinds of accommodations to his trial, like asking for the seventh amendment to get a jury trial – he did get that at his request. And he pleaded the fifth and be silent to prevent incriminating himself, he was granted all that. He had his days in court… the defense was woefully unprepared, and it showed. The results speak for themselves.
Like it or not, a lot of propagandists are fierce Trump advocates – which makes sense. By proving the malleable tactics Trump had used for his own brand, it is not a bridge too far to steer him into doing other shady stuff – especially if he is not even aware that what he is doing is wrong for himself, and by extension the country. And this could also be another reason for why so many GOP folks are running for the exits.
One thing is being a red-blooded Republican, quite another is being a MAGA-loyalist. Sometimes they can be combined, but a Republican will ultimately want what’s best for the country, and follow the rule of law. A MAGA-loyalist will arbitrarily “adjust” the laws if they negatively affect their “dear leader.” However, there are many MAGA’s who are also ex-MAGA because they realized that the math was simply not adding up. There are some who will remain MAGA no matter what is proven against Trump.
That is evident. The people who will be likely clinging to the latter will start saying disparaging things to the USA, call it a third world country, or attack certain people and institutions, advocate for violence, advocate for pretty much anything you can also see in an adversarial regime’s official media, and they will use those words verbatim. Despite all this, there are large amounts of Americans who are probably unaware of the historic significance of May 30, 2024.
Regardless, Trump once again made history as a 34-charges convicted felon. This is to add to his record of being the only twice impeached President, a rapist, and the US President with the most criminal charges, and controversies in the history of the United States of America – and somehow many of his supporters think that disturbing record is just peachy. And once again, I’m here writing – because this is also part of today’s history. I wonder how we’ll all feel when we read these words a few years from now. HLC