Trump at trial

 Former President Donald Trump is a master of political manoeuvring. He’s made history yet again by being the first ex-American leader to be criminally indicted and dragged to court for trial. But he deftly leveraged his tangle with the law to press his re-bid for political power by casting himself as a victim of relentless witch-hunt aimed at keeping him out of the White House in 2024. Nobody does it like Trump!

The former president was last Tuesday arraigned in a Lower Manhattan courthouse in New York on 34 felony charges involving falsifying business records, to which he pleaded “not guilty.” The case being made against him by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is that before the United States 2016 election, then-candidate Trump hatched a scheme to buy up salacious information about his personal life to prevent voters finding out about it, and then falsified business records to conceal the true nature of the deal. Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, allegedly paid $130,000 in hush money on his behalf to porn actress Stormy Daniels. That payment was allegedly made to stop Daniels from telling on a sexual affair she claimed she had with Mr. Trump at a hotel in 2006. Cohen, who stood trial and got convicted for his own sins, said Trump directed him to arrange the hush payment in the run-up to the 2016 presidential poll that Trump won. The ex-president denied having any sexual relationship with Ms. Daniels. Meanwhile, the books of Trump Organization reflected a reimbursement of $130,000 to Cohen that was logged in as ‘legal expenses.’ Analysts of U.S. laws say paying hush money is not by itself illegal, but cooking the books to conceal it may have run afoul of statutes on disclosure of election expenses. Trump, however, denied any wrongdoing.

The ex-president’s arraignment last Tuesday was a media circus in full throttle that he perhaps savoured as an inverted opportunity for political exposure. It began on Monday, a day before the arraignment, in Florida where television networks went live – in the manner of the coverage of 1994 arrest of American football star O. J. Simpson – to record Trump’s journey from his home en route to New York to surrender to Manhattan authorities. Cameras tracked him leaving his luxury resort and boarding his luxury Boeing 757 at Palm Beach airport, covered the take-off and picked him back some hours later over the skies of Manhattan where he was due to stand trial. An eye-in-the-sky helicopter followed him from LaGuardia airport all the way to Trump Tower where he spent the night. On Tuesday, cameras were back on hand to cover his journey from Trump Tower in an eight-vehicle motorcade to the Lower Manhattan courthouse presided over by Judge Juan Merchan. On the way to the court, he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying: “Heading to Lower Manhattan, the courthouse. Seems so SURREAL – WOW, they are going to ARREST ME. Can’t believe this is happening in America. MAGA!” Nothing else gripped media attention like Defendant Trump, not even the activities of President Joe Biden and other routine functions of government.

Upon the former president’s arrival at the courthouse, he was briefly arrested and processed, which reportedly included being fingerprinted; although he was soon left off on bail in personal cognizance after taking his “not guilty” plea. In any event, Trump was not any ordinary defendant. Few defendants show up for court hearings surrounded by beefy Secret Service agents who accord them protection by law. Minutes earlier as he left Trump Tower nearby, he pumped his fist in the air at the crowd of supporters and protesters who lined his route to the courthouse.

Legal experts questioned whether the rather underwhelming set of charges in this particular case matched the gravity of arraigning a former President of the United States (POTUS) for a crime. In other words, Trump could well be guilty of covering up a sensual affair, working the books to do so and trying to stop voters from finding out. But do such alleged offences dating back seven years really justify the momentous step of indicting an ex-president of that country for the first time ever? And if national interest were argued as rationale, is national interest best served by pressing charges against an active presidential candidate considered to be the clear front-runner for the Republican Party ticket in 2024 – especially one who has a record of turning perceived victimisation into cult following? Even in this case, Trump has not been slack in brinksmanship. He slammed the indictment as sheer witch-hunt and accused New York officials plying the charges against him, who incidentally are all Democrats, of political bias all in an attempt to weaken his bid to retake the White House next year. In any event, a conviction according to analysts would not disqualify him from running for, or winning the presidency in 2024.

“Americans have peculiarities of their politics to deal with but Trump’s arraignment models a lesson worthy of emulation, namely equality before the law.”

But the time-honoured American principle of equality before the law comes into play, as Manhattan District Attorney Bragg argued. Trump’s indictment was handed down by a grand jury convened by Bragg, who said in a statement: “This case today is one with allegations like so many of our white collar cases, allegations that someone lied again and again to protect their interests and evade the laws to which we are all held accountable.” He contended that to allow Trump to slide on the charges would be to undermine the principle that everyone, no matter how powerful, is equal under the law. Besides, there is yet legal peril ahead for the former president. He faces other criminal probes that are under way with potentially more serious consequences: these include investigations on classified documents he hoarded at his Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach estate, his role in the storming of the Capitol by protesters on 6th January 2021, and his bid to overturn the 2020 election result in the critical swing state of Georgia.

Reports from the Manhattan courthouse said during his arraignment, it was an uncharacteristically reserved Trump in the dock. He sat solemn but stern, and left his lawyers to do all the talking except when he had to take his “not guilty” plea that under U.S. laws he must do personally. The judge stopped short of issuing a gag order, but warned against posting potentially dangerous content that could incite violence. Upon returning same day to Mar-a-Lago, however, Trump turned unleashed, ripping from his familiar playbook whenever he has his back against the wall. “I never thought anything like this could happen in America. Never thought it could happen. The only crime I’ve committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it,” he told a crowd of supporters. He cast the New York indictment as Democrats’ latest attempt to kneecap him, citing past “onslaught of fraudulent investigations: Russia, Russia, Russia; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; impeachment hoax No. 1, impeachment hoax No. 2; the illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago right here.” The ex-president pooh-poohed the election investigation against him in Georgia, referred to the special counsel probing his handling of classified documents as a “lunatic,” and claimed the judge presiding over his case in Manhattan is a “Trump-hating judge.” He went beyond his legal woes to weigh in on foreign affairs, telling supporters if he were still president, Russia’s war on Ukraine never would have happened. He also blasted the current state of affairs in the U.S., which he branded a nation in decline. “With all of this being said and with a very dark cloud over our beloved country, I have no doubt, nevertheless, that we will make America great again,” he said to round off his speech.

The day revealed two versions of Trump: Court Trump and Rally Trump. In other words, the former president converted the indignity of criminal arraignment into a grandstand for energising his base. And he most likely resonated with them, though whether or not with others is moot. Few politicians in the U.S. have his record of norm-defying political survival: he was impeached twice as president, in 2019 and 2021, but was never removed and served out his term. As it were, he is already the candidate to beat for the GOP presidential ticket in the 2024 U.S. election. Americans have peculiarities of their politics to deal with but Trump’s arraignment models a lesson worthy of emulation, namely equality before the law.