Finally, it’s official that Donald Trump didn’t win the 2016 election
When Donald Trump was found guilty on thirty-four felony charges on Thursday, it didn’t just make it official that he’s a convicted felon. It also made official something else, which you and I have known for nearly a decade but the general public is still just now figuring out: Trump didn’t legitimately win the 2016 election.
If the jury had merely concluded that Trump was guilty of cooking his books, that would have been a misdemeanor conviction. The fact that it’s a felony conviction means the jury agreed that Trump cooked his books in the name of carrying out a larger crime. And throughout this trial, the prosecution made it abundantly clear that the larger crime in question was election fraud in 2016.
In other words, Trump has been found guilty of the felony of rigging the 2016 election in his own favor. The jury just confirmed, by default, without a reasonable doubt, that Trump criminally tampered with the 2016 election. And given that he “won” it by the narrowest and flukiest margin possible, it’s a given that if he hadn’t committed these thirty-four felonies, he wouldn’t have won – and he would never have been President.
There’s a reason Trump has spent so many years constantly talking about how every election is supposedly rigged against him: he’s projecting. He’s the one who criminally conspired with his associates to rig the 2016 election to begin with. Now a jury in a criminal trial agrees. And Trump is a convicted felon because of it.
Bill Palmer is the publisher of the political news outlet Palmer Report