A Convicted Felon Walks Into the White House...
He’s the president.
After an extreme number of successful delays, Donald Trump has been sentenced in the NY criminal case regarding the fraudulent accounting entries Trump used to hide the payouts he made to Stormy Daniels over the affair he had with her. This is not to be confused with the fraud committed by Trump University which resulted in a settlement, the fraud committed by The Trump Foundation which resulted in its dissolution, the fraud from Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg which resulted in prison time, or the fraud from the Trump Organization itself which resulted in felony convictions.
Republicans have now spent years downplaying the severity of this crime, trying to brand it as some sort of accounting error. It was not. This was an intentional crime. In fact, one person has already gone to prison over this. Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen was convicted over not a similar arrangement, but these exact crimes. Cohen was sentenced to prison for these payments.
Despite a last minute attempt by four of our Supreme Court Justices to delay his sentencing, Donald Trump is a convicted and sentenced felon.
His punishment for these 34 felony counts is…
Nothing.
Nothing whatsoever.
Trump spent the sentencing hearing attacking prosecutors and others he perceives as enemies. Despite the severity of these crimes, despite someone already going to prison over them, and despite Trump constantly attacking the judge, his family, his staff, and witnesses against him, Judge Merchan sentenced Trump to an “unconditional discharge.”
I am not a lawyer, but from my own reading an unconditional discharge is rare and typically used for far more minor offenses with recalcitrant defendants. I cannot find a case involving multiple felonies and a defendant who insists the entire case is a “witch hunt” which is what Donald Trump calls any investigation into himself.
As disappointing as this sentence is, Judge Merchan didn’t really have any choice. The Supreme Court would not allow a prison sentence and likely would have swallowed up the case in years of further litigation. Trump would simply ignore any probationary terms.
Our systems are not built to address the country electing a convicted felon awaiting citizens. Our systems are not built to withstand Donald Trump or his voters.
One week from tonight, a convicted felon will be entering the White House as president. Anyone stating with confidence how this term will play out is being dishonest. America has never faced anything like this before. (Multiple countries bar convicted felons from entering which means our new president cannot go to them without the laws being waived.)
I will be traveling this weekend through the inauguration but will have more frequent updates out as this second administration begins. 8 years ago it took less than a week for Trump to ban people from certain Muslim countries from entering the United States. Many of them were permanent residents and in several cases, US citizens. The protest and legal backlash was immediate, massive, and effective.
We are going to need that level of energy for the next four years. Get some rest. The resistance begins in one week.
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