I could have saved them the trouble
As you may recall, brothers and sisters, last February two lawyers, Mike Pomerantz and Carey R. Dunne resigned from their roles as special assistants to the New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg. In their letters of resignation both lawyers expressed frustration at Bragg over his decision not to indict Donald Trump. One of them, Pomerantz, has (of course) written a book about it.
In his book Pomerantz claims that Bragg feared they might have to prove Trump wasn’t legally insane in order to make their case against him. Apparently Bragg worried that this would be very difficult to prove, and was one of the reasons why they elected not to bring charges against him.
They didn’t ask me, of course. But if they had I could have saved them the trouble. Donald Trump will never, ever use the “not guilty by reason of insanity” defence. It is simply beyond him to do so, and the only reason he might otherwise is if he becomes mentally incapacitated and his guardians enter such a plea on his behalf and without his consent.
How do I know this? Because Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist, and I have intimate experience with two examples of the type. In order for a person to agree to enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity they either have to admit they were wrong or pretend that they were. Donald Trump will never, ever do either. He absolutely lacks the humility to do so.
It is because they didn’t understand this, Bragg and company created a bogey man that simply didn’t exist. Trump’s ego will never let him admit he was wrong, particularly not insane. It seems to me that you don’t even need to have my own unfortunate experience with narcissists to figure this one out. I can’t believe anyone could observe Trump for any length of time and not see that he’s incapable of any public mea culpas.
“Was Donald Trump suffering from some sort of mental condition that made it impossible for him to distinguish between fact and fiction?” Mark Pomerantz writes in “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.” Of course he was. But it’s that very mental condition that will make it virtually impossible for him to admit as much. They needn’t fear Trump entering such a plea, and he will summarily fire the first lawyer who dares to suggest that he does.
Of course, Bragg has since ramped up the investigation into Trump’s business records and alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election. These are charges that won’t easily succumb to an insanity plea.
But the idea that Trump will start imitating some muttering, drooling incompetent slouching around in public like “The Oddfather” Vincent Gigante did back in the 80s and 90s is laughable. That’s wholly against the narcissist playbook, and I can readily vouch for that. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.