No demonstrations. No shouts of “Lock him up!” No blustering. No intimidation. No statements of superiority. No violence. On Tuesday afternoon, despite the entourage that accompanied him, Donald Trump stood before a New York trial judge and spoke, on his own, the words of an accused person, “Not guilty.” He is a citizen who has been charged by indictment with 34 felonies. He, like any other defendant, elected to avail himself of the full panoply of rights provided for him in the Sixth Amendment to Constitution of the United States.
The allegations against him are numerous and complicated. He has substantial due process rights: to a trial by jury, representation by counsel, a jury trial, to confront the witnesses against him, to compel the presence of witnesses he wishes to have testify on his own behalf and to have the State of New York prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Thanks to the recent decision in Ramos v. Louisiana a jury must find him guilty, or not, unanimously.
No other president has ever been charged with a felony while in, or after leaving, office. (I have purposely excluded former Vice-President Spiro Agnew, who was an Article II elected officer when he was indicted while in office and pleaded guilty to numerous felonies in 1973, just before he resigned). But, Donald Trump is being treated by the system no better, nor worse, than any other accused.
It does not matter what verdict may be reached, although, many of us have our preference. What really matters is that the criminal justice system is at work and evidencing that no person is above the law, just as no person should be below the law.
Donald Trump stood alone and entered his plea like every other defendant. Just as it should be. I, for one, celebrate this day. Not because the man entering the plea was Donald Trump, but because the faith I have in the system I have spent my life defending as a prosecutor, defense attorney and judge has once again been validated.
Comments 3
Alvin Bragg violated his ethical obligations in bringing this case. That ought to be grounds for condemning these charges.
Glad you saved me the trouble of replying to this self-serving clap-trap. Only a member of the judiciary in the Circuit that brought us Alcee Hastings and Operation Court Broom could have written it with a straight face.
“…no person is above the law, just as no person should be below the law.” The new mantra of the hate-Trump left and the party of corruptocrats.
If seeing the justice system at work, fairly and without favoritism makes you this gleeful, you must have been on suicide watch from the despair of seeing Hillary Clinton treated with such favoritism. Not to mention the dozens of usual suspects who aided and abetted in the crimes against the FISA courts and the American people with fraudulent warrant applications targeting President Trump or the unprecedented raid on Trump’s private residence, rifling through Melania’s underwear (nice job FBI) while ignoring mountains of documents taken by every president and vice president for decades including Barack Obama and Joe Biden. The list goes on and is voluminous – corruptocrats getting a free pass on real crimes.
A real attorney would have researched and commented on how no violation of law has been cited as the law that a bookkeeping error was allegedly made to cover up. Ooops.
Please, don’t insult our intelligence with this weak pretense at an even-handed opinion. Time for you to take a seat and let the real pros take charge.