In the US justice system, juries are the failsafe -- that's why Trump and his allies would like it if their supporters don’t think of them at all.
|
Listen To This Story
 |
When Donald Trump and every single one of his hangers-on flocked to their social media accounts to malign the verdict that saw the former president convicted of a felonious falsification of business records, there was one part just about all of them left out: the jury.
That’s because these 12 New Yorkers (or the grand jury that voted to indict Trump in the first place, for that matter) don’t fit into the narrative.
In order to demonstrate to the former president that they are loyal to him and not, for example, the United States, all of these GOP lawmakers and right-wing talking heads are willing to badmouth the entire judicial system. In fact, most of them would be willing to dismantle all of it right now to protect Trump from even a semblance of accountability.
If you have been paying attention, you know all of the stuff they are saying: These charges should never have been brought, the prosecutor is a liberal hack, a former Biden administration official went to work for the district attorney, the judge once gave $15 to Joe Biden’s campaign, his daughter works for Democrats, and so on.
What they all forget to mention is that it was a grand jury that indicted Trump, and that a jury of 12 regular Americans (we won’t say that they were his peers because there is no equal to the former president’s toxic cocktail of personality disorders) then sat through the entire trial, reviewed the evidence, and unanimously voted to convict him of 34 felonies.
In the US justice system, juries are the failsafe.
Let’s assume that all of the stuff Trump and the others are saying about this trial is true (even if most of it doesn’t make sense).
As that narrative goes, President Biden was so distraught by the prospect of once again facing the same person whom he had defeated by seven million votes in 2020 that he decided to orchestrate a trial at the state level after his own Department of Justice (that is supposedly “weaponized”) refused to bring charges in the case.
He then dispatched a senior official to New York to help the district attorney conjure up some flimsy evidence (i.e., witness accounts and business records).
Then, with the assistance of a corrupt judge who was a Democratic megadonor (to the tune of a total of $35) and likely his daughter, who does work for Democrats, they all conspired to “get” Trump.
That is, essentially, the story his former president and his allies are trying to sell… even though (or perhaps because) doing so will rile up their gullible base and undermine faith in the justice system.
But how does the jury fit in?
Sure, the pool of potential jury members came from an area that is very liberal… well, not according to Trump, who thinks he can turn it red, or his son, who believes scores of closeted conservatives are in hiding there.
It would have taken only one of these people to “hang” the jury. Yet, the vote was unanimous on all counts. How does that fit into the narrative?
Speaking of hanging the jury, Trump better hope that nothing happens to its members.
We wrote last night that their decision to convict the former was truly courageous because they knew they’d likely subject themselves to harassment and threats… not only from angry MAGA supporters but even from GOP lawmakers, Fox News hosts, and other right-wing influencers.
Imagine if a Trump supporter were to take it upon himself to “hold the jury to account” for delivering a guilty verdict.
It seems unlikely that non-MAGA voters would look kindly upon such a thing. After all, jury members are regular Americans just like they are.
For these reasons, you likely won’t hear much about how the jury was also “rigged.”
Because Trump and his allies would like it if their supporters don’t think of them at all.
