Despite his best efforts to present himself as a generational businessman, Donald Trump has always been much closer to an Al Capone than a Warren Buffett. He built his fortune by exploiting innocent people, evading taxes, and demanding absolute loyalty from underlings who he promptly discards the moment they cease to be useful. It should come as no surprise then that he’s conducting himself like a mafia boss now that he’s on on trial.
The jury was selected for Trump’s hush money trial this week and what should have been a fairly straightforward process was quickly snarled by the ex-president’s pathological lawlessness. One of the selected jurors ultimately asked to be dismissed from the trial because she expressed concerns about being harassed or harmed for her participation. She perhaps correctly feared that her identity would become public knowledge, at which point the frothing MAGA cult would descend upon her with the insanity and white-hot hatred that has come to define their movement.
Less-than-coincidentally, the juror voiced her concerns a day after Trump unleashed a tirade on Truth Social about “undercover Liberal Activists” supposedly infiltrating the jury to harm him. By now, we know how dangerous his followers are. We all watched them attempt a violent coup on his behalf on January 6th. Every time that Trump attacks someone in public he does it hoping that one of his more unstable supporters will be swayed to take matters into their own hands.
We are in completely uncharted judicial waters here. Trump is by far the most powerful person to ever go on trial in America. By the most conservative estimate he controls a good thirty percent of this country. Al Capone had only a hundred or so Tommy Gun-toting thugs. Donald Trump has the entire Republican Party.
This vast influence means that Trump is capable of exerting material pressure on the court proceedings in novel ways. He can easily circumvent his gag order by having his right-wing media henchman hit whatever talking points he wants. We saw that this week when Fox News’ Jesse Watters went scorched earth on the jurors, parroting Trump’s most pernicious smears. Now, a huge swath of this country is convinced that the jury is riddled with satanic communist saboteurs intent on railroading their glorious and innocent leader Donald J. Trump.
What we are witnessing is jury intimidation of an unprecedented magnitude. As this trial proceeds, the GOP’s rhetoric will grow more paranoid, more enraged, and more apocalyptic. Even if none of the remaining jurors ask to be dismissed out of fear, there’s still a chance that one or some or all of them might ultimately vote to acquit not because they think that Trump is innocent, but because they’re afraid of what might happen if they convict him.
So where do we go from here? Judge Merchan will decide whether or not to punish Trump at the show cause hearing on Tuesday. Likely, he’ll just slap him with a warning. If, after that, Trump still decides to violate the gag order the judge can hit him with the statutory minimum of thirty days in a jail cell.
Ultimately, the only way out of our Donald Trump problem is through the ballot box. Rather than get bogged down worrying about his trials, we should fix our gaze on November and do everything in our power to consign him to the dustbin of history. Our judicial system might fail us in the end but our democracy is made of stronger stuff.
The "Don't Be A Mitch" campaign is back after a hugely successful 2022 cycle, having raised $1.2 million for voter registration groups ahead of the midterm elections. This year, with a tough Senate map, we have no room for error. I put together a list of organizations from 5 key states (Montana, Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Missouri) that I think are best situated to ensure that the Senate stays in Democrats' hands. Any amount helps!
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