Now we’re getting to the fun part
If you consider Donald Trump to be an anti-American villain and you blame him for how many obstacles the nation is now facing, then you’re surely enjoying his criminal trial. It’s vindication of everything we knew to be true about him all along. It’s also de facto proof that he didn’t legitimately win anything in 20216 – not even the Republican nomination.
Now, with Stormy Daniels on the stand, the trial is also becoming just plain fun. Daniels’ testimony didn’t just help confirm that Trump and his pals criminally conspired to commit election fraud in 2016. Her testimony also revealed how bad he is in bed, how creepily awkward he is around women, how pathetically perverted he is.
It was just humiliating for Trump, on a deeply personal level. You wouldn’t wish it on most people, but he’s not most people. He’s a psychotic murderous monster who committed things along the lines of treason and espionage against the United States. It’s easy to argue that he deserves this kind of personal humiliation. And even if he doesn’t, Daniels’ intimate testimony about Trump was necessary to help establish that they really did do the things she says they did. It’s Trump who is basing his defense on the claim that he never slept with Daniels. So of course it’s fair for her to give the kind of testimony that helps establish he did sleep with her.
And like I said, it’s just plain fun. It’s fun watching this evil bastard get what he deserves. He’s being destroyed on a personal level, even while he’s on his way to being criminally convicted. He’s dug himself such a deep hole that he’s in danger of going to jail in the middle of his trial.
But if there’s a concern here – not something to worry about, but something to keep in the back of our minds going forward – it’s that this is not supposed to be fun. The point of this criminal trial is not to humiliate Trump by putting his sexual inadequacies on display. The point is to prove his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt so that the jury will find him guilty. Nothing more, nothing less.
While Stormy Daniels’ testimony helped the prosecution, it’s not clear that the most explicit aspects of her testimony did help the prosecution. So the prosecution may decide to avoid asking Karen McDougal such explicit questions when she’s on the stand. Remember, this is all a calculation about whatever gives the prosecution the highest odds of conviction, which is often not quite the same thing as whatever makes Trump look the worst.
And if you’re hoping for fireworks when Michael Cohen takes the stand, you should probably reevaluate that notion. Cohen is a highly capable witness who will come into this with a dozen other witnesses having already corroborated key parts of his story. His testimony will be supported by an abundant number of documents and communications.
Cohen doesn’t need to get on the stand and go as viciously at Trump as possible. Nor will he be inclined to. Nor will prosecutors want him to. Cohen and Alvin Bragg both know full well that this is about getting Trump convicted, and that means putting on clinical proof of his guilt.
So let’s remember that as fun as this trial is getting, the goal here is not to have a fun trial. The goal is to put on the kind of trial that results in Donald Trump being convicted on these thirty-four felonies and being given the harshest sentence possible. Any fun moments that arise in this trial between now and the day of the verdict will merely be happenstance. It’s okay to enjoy those fun moments. I know I’m certainly enjoying them. But they’re not the end goal here. Conviction is. And that’s coming.
