CNN
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Donald Trump was and may soon be the most powerful man in the world again. But on Monday, in opening statements in his first criminal trial, his declining reality as a criminal defendant will be revealed in a humbling way.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has long presented himself as an all-powerful force throughout his business and political career, and has long struggled with the constraints of the law, the Constitution and common decorum. But now that jury selection for the Manhattan hush-money trial has been completed, Mr. Trump’s fate will be decided by prosecutors, lawyers, judges and 12 people who, according to the basic principles of the justice system, are considered equals to the former president. It is left in your hands. -president. Nothing is more disproven than Mr. Trump’s lifelong assumption that who he is immunizes him from such responsibilities.
Just over six months from the election that could see him return to the White House, President Trump has little ability to direct action in cases where his freedom is at stake. His usual tactics of dramatization, obfuscation, and intimidation have no place in the courtroom. The fact that he is forced to appear in court four days a week for several weeks is also a serious inconvenience for the Republican candidate. The restrictions came Saturday when dangerous storms canceled his rally in North Carolina, a battleground state President Joe Biden is trying to flip, and one of the few windows to participate in the election trial. But it got worse.
Regardless of the outcome, this trial, and how it affects President Trump’s schedule and demeanor, highlights that the presumptive Republican nominee is unlike any presidential candidate in history. . Regardless of whether he is a convicted felon by Election Day, voters will be reminded of questions surrounding his character and his many legal entanglements — and three more. Criminal cases are coming up, all of which he pleads not guilty to. Trump has had great success in the Republican primaries with his appeal to victimhood, but it remains to be seen how his arguments will be received by a broader electorate.
Trump’s gradual loss of control over events may be one reason why he insists on testifying in court, even if it is detrimental to his case. He is already trying to diminish the value of prosecutors in the minds of voters who will be asked in November to decide whether they want him as president again.
“The trial starts on Monday, which is much earlier than many people think. The judge wants this case to move forward as quickly as possible. That’s his reason, not mine.” Trump was furious outside court on Friday. So far, he has been successful in creating delays by litigating endlessly, but this legal strategy still delays his three other criminal cases against him.
The former president’s remarks Friday came on the heels of a contentious procedural hearing in which prosecutors and defense attorneys haggled over evidence and past misconduct allegations that could be subject to cross-examination if Trump testifies. It was done later. The process, known as the Sandoval hearings, gave the former president a glimpse into the personal and disturbing revelations that could be unearthed at trial.
Criminal defense attorney Stacey Schneider tells CNN details of Trump’s past cases, including his loss in a defamation case against author E. Jean Carroll and the huge judgment against him in a New York civil fraud trial. said it was an unpleasant experience. “I think there’s an emotional slant to what the president was dealing with in the minutes before he made that statement,” Schneider said Friday. “Defendants coming out of Sandoval’s hearing are not happy. It’s just the nature of hearing. This is a foreshadowing of the worst that can happen if you take the stand. It’s rattled. He’s rattled. I think it was.”
The former president’s obsession with his situation did little to ease over the weekend. He posted a flurry of his angry posts on Truth Social, focusing on his own claims that as a former president he has immunity from prosecution for his actions while in office. The case will be heard in oral argument in the Supreme Court on Thursday. The issue primarily focuses on his federal election interference case, but it also has implications for hush money, as his alleged actions occurred while he was in the Oval Office. “Of course, as President of the United States and Commander in Chief, I am entitled to immunity,” Trump wrote in one of his posts Saturday.
The Manhattan trial stems from hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels, which prosecutors allege were paid to cover up an affair in order to mislead voters in the 2016 election. There is. President Trump has denied any affair and has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records as part of the scheme.
The trial is expected to be a personally testing experience for President Trump. Especially since the witnesses include his former colleagues and friends whose testimony the former president likely views as a betrayal. Those include his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and David Pecker, former chairman of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer. Mr. Pecker will be the first witness called by the district attorney’s office, according to a person familiar with the planning.
Prosecutors have refused to provide the defense with a complete list of witnesses before each day of trial, arguing that President Trump’s social media attacks could endanger potential witnesses and hurt the case. There is. Regarding their offer to submit the name of the first witness by Sunday, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass warned, “If it’s tweeted, it’s going to be the last.” Judge Juan Melchán decided to force prosecutors to give advance notice to witnesses ahead of a contempt trial scheduled for Tuesday on allegations that President Trump violated a gag order with social media posts, among other things. Rejected.
Prosecutors in the case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, must only prove Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in court. Jurors are cross-examined extensively to ensure they base their decisions on the law and the evidence, rather than the political overtones of the case. But the looming backdrop of an election and the identity of the defendants mean there is national scrutiny of what appears to be a fairly simple case, essentially one about business records.
So there are implicit questions for Mr. Bragg about the strength and validity of the case, which makes Mr. Trump the first former president to go on trial at the same time as he seeks to restore his job. The principle that all Americans are equal before the law is the central issue here.
President Trump has baselessly claimed that he is participating in an orchestrated campaign of lawful weapons use and victimization by the White House to prevent the 2024 presidential election. But while there is no evidence that Mr. Biden was involved in Mr. Bragg’s case, some voters may perceive it simply as a presumptive Republican candidate being pursued by Democratic prosecutors. Moreover, for many voters, the events of the election eight years ago seem distant, especially now that Trump’s alleged sleaze has been widely publicized. There is also a widespread view that the charges in the Manhattan trial are less serious than those in Trump’s other three criminal indictments. These incidents, which target efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, have serious implications for our democracy and the presidency.
Even before Mr. Trump’s daily rants on camera outside court, Americans were polarized about his situation. The idea that he is a victim of political persecution is far more widely accepted outside elite political and media circles in coastal and urban areas, even if it is not supported by the facts. It is no leap for Trump to paint this incident as corrupt, since during his nine years in politics he has exploited and exacerbated widespread distrust of the country’s institutions among many voters.
The political allegations against prosecutors were raised by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who said she was among a number of Trump surrogates who could be auditioning for running mate in television appearances to defend Trump. I am alone.
“I think it’s a little ridiculous that we’ve waited so many years for these kinds of accusations against Donald Trump,” Noem told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday’s “State of the Union.” “If they wanted to make these charges against him, they should have done it years ago when this incident happened. During the presidential campaign when he is campaigning to return to the White House. I think the fact that they do it conveniently proves that this is all politically motivated.”
President Trump is prohibited from attacking witnesses under a partial gag order, but this restriction does not apply to his supporters. Noem seized the opportunity to attack Cohen, who was serving time in prison after being convicted on tax charges of lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws.
Speculation abounds about how voters, especially in key battleground states, will react to Trump’s conviction in this case and in other matters that are increasingly likely to go to trial before the election. There is no way to know. A New York Times/Siena poll released earlier this month found that 46% of likely voters think Trump should be found guilty in the hush money trial, while 37% say he would be guilty. I don’t think it should be done. Opinion polls conducted before jury selection began showed attitudes toward the trial largely along party lines.
Most of the pretrial focus has been on the possibility of conviction, but the presumptive Republican nominee’s acquittal is a virtual dead heat between the former president and the Republican Party in a CNN poll on Sunday. This could lead to unpredictable political outcomes in election campaigns where The current one. But Noem rehearsed political arguments that Trump and his allies will try to file as the trial progresses. “I’m walking around this state talking to people, talking to people all over the country, and they don’t even know what trial this is,” Noem said. “What they’re really concerned about is trying to figure out how to pay their gas bill. They’re trying to figure out how to pay their electric bill and put food on the table for their kids.”
The South Dakota governor’s downplaying of the allegations against Trump ignores the extraordinary historical reality that former presidents face multiple criminal trials. But when the first trial begins in earnest on Monday, more political and personal stakes of great importance to the former president will be revealed.
