Donald Trump is getting convicted
When it was revealed that former National Enquirer boss David Pecker would be the first witness for the prosecution in Donald Trump’s criminal trial, it was widely expected that his job was merely to corroborate what other, more crucial witnesses like Michael Cohen would end up saying. But by the time Pecker was finished with his second day on the stand on Tuesday, it turned out to have been a whole different story.
We’ve all long known that Trump and Pecker were using the National Enquirer to try to sway the 2016 election. But during his testimony, Pecker confessed that he and Trump were outright strategically conspiring to use phony National Enquirer stories to drive down the poll numbers of whoever was surging against Trump at the time – both in the primary and general elections.
Given that this Trump-Pecker conspiracy to commit election fraud included Trump cooking his own books, Pecker’s testimony has already established that Trump is guilty – beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s already over. Pecker’s testimony alone, along with Trump’s inability to provide even a shred of reasonable doubt about Pecker’s claims, is enough for a jury to convict Trump. And this is only day two.
This is before we get to the part where Michael Cohen takes the stand and corroborates everything Pecker just said and more. This is before the part where Karen McDougal takes the stand and confirms that her affair with Trump got gobbled up by the Trump-Pecker catch and kill conspiracy. This is before Stormy Daniels takes the stand and confirms that Trump and Cohen did to her what Trump and Pecker did to McDougal. And this is before Trump’s books are laid bare showing that Trump illegally cooked them as part of this plot to rig the 2016 election in his favor.
Criminal cases like this one are based on the premise that with this many inside witnesses for the prosecution, the jury will find at least one of them compelling and trustworthy – and because that witness is corroborating the other witnesses, the jury will presumably extend its trust to the other witnesses. But we’re only eight hours and one witness into this trial, and the case has already been made. It’s a done deal. Trump is going to be convicted. The rest of the witnesses will just be piling on.
