Just lock Trump up
already
Donald Trump has been
involved in one court case after another over the years. After his conviction
in the hush money case, he shows no remorse, only contempt and defiance. Judge
Juan Merchan may have no choice but to give him prison time.
By Gene
Lyons
Jun 7, 2024,
3:31pm CDT
To hear angry MAGA
Republicans tell it, former President Donald J. Trump’s conviction on 34 felony
counts of falsifying business records is a shock and an outrage. But how could
anybody be surprised? Never mind the evidence presented to the New York jury
was voluminous and pretty much uncontested.
For all his bragging and
whining, Trump didn’t dare testify — officially. But the judge’s gag order
didn’t prevent him from spouting off. That was a Trump lie for the MAGA chumps
in the cheap seats.
Legally speaking, has
there ever been a bigger loser than Trump? Kevin Drum compiled a list on his
invaluable website, jabberwocking.com.
He’s pretty much
constantly in one court or another, Trump. And he nearly always loses.
Following his 2020 election defeat, the candidate filed 62 — yes, 62 — lawsuits
alleging election fraud.
And lost every single
one.
Back in 2018, a federal
court ordered him to pay $25 million in restitution to students defrauded by
the Trump University scam. In 2019, a New York judge ordered the Trump
Foundation permanently closed for playing fast and loose with the charitable
organization’s funds. He and his family were fined $2 million and forbidden to
operate a charity in the state again. Trump whined they should have
investigated Bill and Hillary Clinton instead.
So, he sued Hillary.
That one ended up costing him only $1 million after a federal judge in Florida
ruled the suit was “completely frivolous” and should never have been brought.
Trump, the judge wrote, was no babe in the woods: “Mr. Trump is a prolific and
sophisticated litigant who is repeatedly using the courts to seek revenge on
political adversaries. He is the mastermind of strategic abuse of the judicial
process.”
That same day, Trump
dropped a lawsuit against New York State Attorney General Letitia James that
sought to stall her office’s civil case against the Trump Organization. The
resulting trial found the Trump Organization guilty of massive tax fraud.
“Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological,” Judge
Arthur Engoron wrote.
The chief financial
officer of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, pleaded guilty to tax
evasion and was sentenced to five months in prison. He subsequently pleaded
guilty to perjury and returned to the slammer for another five months.
For his part, Trump
called the ruling a “sham,” the judge “crooked” and James “corrupt.” He
denounced the case against him as “ELECTION INTERFERENCE” and a “WITCH HUNT.”
Sound familiar?
Evidently, the Trump Organization was staffed by cheats and perjurers like
Weisselberg and star prosecution witness Michael Cohen from top to bottom.
Everybody but Boss
Trump, who knew nothing.
Elsewhere, Trump has
brought lawsuits against The New York Times, CNN, NBC News and The Washington
Post. All were dismissed due to lack of evidence. He was successfully sued for
sexual abuse by magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay her $5
million in restitution. When Trump continued to mock and malign her publicly, a
second jury ordered him to pay her $83 million for defamation. But for the
statute of limitations, the judge in the Carroll case commented, Trump could
have been convicted of rape.
Needless to say, these
levies are all on appeal. Chances are that Trump’s estate will end up owing E.
Jean Carroll and the State of New York many millions of dollars in fines and
interest.
Meanwhile, the
hot-button issue of the day is whether Judge Juan Merchan will put Trump behind
bars come his July 11 sentencing. And there, I fear, Trump’s big mouth is
giving Merchan no choice.
Normally, a first-time
offender of a paper crime would be sentenced to probation. But Trump shows no
remorse, only contempt and defiance. During the trial, he openly and repeatedly
violated a gag order intended to protect the proceedings against threats to
court personnel, witnesses and jurors.
Indeed, Trump continues
to defy that order, which remains in force until the judge says it doesn’t.
He’s aided and abetted, it must be said, by canting Republican politicians who
fear the MAGA horde.
Trump went on “Fox &
Friends” the other day to vend the preposterous lie that he never chanted “lock
her up” about Hillary Clinton. Anybody who believes that will believe anything
— the hallmark of a MAGA cultist. As for jail time, he said the prospect
doesn’t trouble him, but he’s “not sure the public would stand for it … You
know, at a certain point, there’s a breaking point.”
And then what? To me,
it’s an empty threat. Trump’s been trying to raise a MAGA mob throughout his
tenure, and they keep not showing up. People aren’t going to risk their own
freedom to save his mangy a**.
But a threat is a
threat, and no American court can stand for it. Even if it’s only for a couple
of months, Merchan is going to have little choice but to lock him up.
Gene Lyons is a National
Magazine Award winner and co-author of “The Hunting of the President.”