The Witness Chronicles, May 29, 2024

A thank you to the Trump jury

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A Thank You to the Trump Jury, Regardless of Outcome

Upholding the rule of law

Serving on a jury should not be a life threatening situation. Prior to this trial the only time jurors might have feared for their lives were the trials of notorious mobsters, known for glaring at jurors with such malevolence in their gaze some jurors fell to pieces.

The spectacle we have watched in the past six weeks is the closest thing to a mob trial we have seen in years, not because the former President has an organized family of hit men, but because he has followers who would happily threaten, intimidate, and possibly injure jurors to change their choice.

And Trump is well known for encouraging such behavior while keeping himself personally insulated from any guilt by claiming he was kidding or an associate posted his rants without his knowledge. We saw this in this trial as prosecutors looked for a definitive paper trail leading directly to Trump.

He carefully avoided putting anything on paper or tape, a practice he has used across his career and one he probably learned from his mentor, mob attorney Roy Cohn. This is criminal process 101.

Regardless of all this, the defense and prosecution was able to quickly find eighteen jurors, including six alternates, in a city known for its disdain of Trump, a native New Yorker. It says a great deal about the respect the prospective jury pool showed for the rule of law.

The rule of law states that in the United States no man or woman is above the law, including the President and former Presidents. This is the basis of everything that keeps our society from descending into chaos and it is something Trump feels is below him.

This imperial attitude has been struck a near fatal blow in these recent weeks as we watched a man alternate between outrage, terror, incoherent rambling, and sleep as he was forced, perhaps for the first time in his life, to sit and face the music, however unpleasant.

And unpleasant it was, with a stream of witnesses from the tawdry side of America including a porn star, tabloid publisher, and an admittedly crooked lawyer who served as a fixer for Trump and turned on him when Trump discarded him.

It was a sordid spectacle. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall. The jury was far more than that. They had the best seats in the house and by all reports were riveted throughout the experience. Who wouldn’t be? As a writer I could not make this stuff up.

But the price for those prime seats was and will continue to be high. The press, particularly the right wing Trump supporting press, will be working day and night to expose them and find anything in their lives they can use to terrorize them. Terrorize is not too harsh a term.

We saw the lives of two Georgia election workers terrorized repeatedly by Trump’s attorneys, to the point where they had to leave their homes, move constantly, and fear for their lives, all for passing a mint to one another on camera.

This jury could face a far more dangerous onslaught, but this is not Georgia, a much more Trumpy place than New York. And these men and women are not hourly election workers, they are largely professionals hopefully with the means to protect themselves.

As I write this, the gravity of what they took on seems even heavier than I thought as I started writing. And the heroism they display every day, regardless of their decision, is striking. I may disagree with their decision, or not, but my respect for them and their respect for the rule of law, in the face of unknown adversity is boundless.

I salute them.

~ I write The Grasshopper, a letter for creatives, The Witness Chronicles, a place for my articles on politics and climate, and The Remarkable, a recovery letter, about my addiction and reentry experience. All are weekly and free, however this is how I live and I strongly believe all writers and creatives should get paid, if we provide value. Your support with a paid subscription helps make that happen.

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