Today’s a big one: I’m so grateful that the criminal justice system—with all its flaws—worked, and that 12 ordinary citizens of Manhattan stepped up to the plate, guided with patience and professionalism by a judge, and convicted the Kleptocrat on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to influence the 2016 election.
These
12—and six alternates—sat through six weeks of mostly tedious and sometimes
tawdry testimony, paying attention to all of it, while the defendant pouted and
dozed and frowned and growled his contempt for the proceeding. They did their
civic duty; they rendered their verdict based on their understanding of the
judge’s instructions and the evidence presented. They deserve our thanks and
respect for that.
It was an extraordinary case, with extraordinary precautions—jurors
remained anonymous because of the very real danger of threats to them by TFG
and his toadies all up and down the food chain. (The number of Republican
legislators, many of whom hold law degrees, who have decried the verdict as a
travesty is appalling.) Imagine—a criminal trial of a former president with the
kinds of precautions normally only seen when mobsters are in the dock.
The
calls to dox and harass the jurors began shortly after the end of the trial.
We live in strange times; no doubt about it. And there is danger all around us. I need to be clear: the legal system is not going to save us. We have to do that at the polls in November. But today I am grateful that a dozen men and women stood up for all of us in a court of law and held a criminal accountable for his actions. That’s not nothing.
©2024 Bas Bleu
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