Opinion In Donald Trump’s conviction, the triumph of American justice

In New York City’s Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where Mark David Chapman pleaded guilty to the murder of John Lennon in 1981 and where, in 2020, Harvey Weinstein was convicted for sexual assault and rape, another momentous trial ended on Thursday with a jury returning a unanimous “guilty” verdict. The defendant, former US president and presumptive Republican nominee for November’s presidential elections, Donald Trump, was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. The prosecution successfully argued that he had done so to prevent voters in the 2016 elections from learning about a sexual encounter that he subsequently tried to cover up by paying hush money. Trump’s new status as the first US president to be a convicted felon reaffirms that the law applies equally to everyone, even a wealthy, still influential, former commander-in-chief.

For a country as sharply polarised as the US, where the Trump presidency and its aftermath has induced much hand-wringing over the state of the republic, this is good news. Throughout the trial, efforts were made by Trump to cast the process as a “political witch hunt” orchestrated by the Joe Biden administration. Shortly after the verdict was read out, he played to his familiar script of victimisation, describing the trial — during which he repeatedly attacked and threatened the jurors, witnesses and even the judge’s family — as “rigged” and “disgraceful” and characterising his legal troubles as a sign of a “country in big trouble”. Trump’s fulminations aside, however, it is clear that due process triumphed. After a thorough investigation, a trial was conducted and a jury of 12 found Trump guilty. This may not have been the most serious case against the former president — he faces graver charges in three other cases, connected with mishandling of government documents, attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state of Georgia and conspiring to overturn his 2020 defeat to Joe Biden. But these cases have all been delayed over procedural questions, which makes this one all the more significant, symbolically.

Advertisement

Politically, how the court verdict plays into the presidential election in November remains to be seen. To his die-hard supporters, Trump’s conviction is unlikely to make a difference; his previous legal reversals — for example, his loss in a defamation lawsuit brought by columnist E Jean Carroll, who also accused him of rape — apparently made no dent in his popularity. With his opponents as firmly convinced of his guilt, the conviction is likely to have influence only with the undecided voters who could matter in swing states. Trump has said that the real verdict will come in November. As America decides whether it wants a convicted felon as president, that may well be the case.