Donald Trump: Prisoner of His Own Lies

Donald Trump is absolutely right: His trial was rigged. He was never able to benefit from a full and total defense. His lawyers were literally handcuffed and incapable of defending him.

Why? Because they were prisoners of the lies Donald Trump has told for decades. In fact, Trump has been trapped by his own lies, big and small.

One almost feels sorry for Todd Blanche, a renowned attorney who headed up Trump’s legal team. He had to defend his client, but without the ability to freely address the starting point of the whole case, which is that Trump had an affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, to whom he paid $130,000 for her silence.

Trump as usual, denied everything: the affair, the payment to Daniels, and falsifying accounting records to hide it.

As Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said, “As far as I know you don’t pay someone $130,000 not to have sex with you.” Nothing about Trump’s story added up, but his lawyers could do nothing but stick to his version of things.

Clearly, Trump’s lawyers were not going to put him on the witness stand. The man is a veritable “perjury machine” his lawyers said in restraining him from testifying in the Robert Mueller investigation while he was president.

Trump draws his approach from Roy Cohn, his first lawyer and “fixer”: Admit nothing, attack everything. It is an approach he maintains to this day: The judge and the entire judicial system are corrupt, not him.

Obviously, this case is not a government matter compared to three other cases now mired in legal procedures — charges related to organizing a conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, charges related to interfering with election results by trying to convince the election officials in Georgia to reverse their results, and charges that Trump refused to surrender confidential documents he took from the White House when he left.

But even if it is more than likely that Trump will appeal the hush money trial verdict, from this point forward Trump is a convicted felon, as his opponents will repeat on every platform. The question now is whether or not this conviction will have an effect on the November election.

The Answer Is No and Yes

No, in the sense that American voters have been so divided for a least a decade that virtually everyone knows whether or not they are pro-Trump or anti-Trump. Moreover, the Democrat, Joe Biden, is unpopular and has a reputation for lacking energy, which is a euphemism for something else.

That said, a criminal conviction can still be a bad thing for Trump, even if it generated significant donations to his campaign fund since the jury’s verdict.

In a very tight election, which may come down to a handful of votes in four or five key states, even a slight shift in voters could change a lot.

A YouGov poll conducted after Thursday’s verdict — immediately and while perceptions were subject to change — indicated that 50% of respondents agreed with the jury that Trump was guilty, versus 30% who believed he was innocent and 19% who were undecided.

That same poll revealed that 47% of Americans thought the trial was fair while 37% did not.

In addition, a New York Times poll conducted last October showed that 7% of those who supported Trump would be likely to vote for Biden if the former president were convicted in a criminal trial. The question did not address specific criminal charges.

Seven percent is not much, but at the same time it could be decisive in a very tight race such as this one.

All indications are that the Republican base will remain mobilized despite the verdict, but anti-Trump voters are equally committed.

We will also have to take the effect of the verdict on Trump himself into account. Those closest to Trump reported that he was certain he would be found not guilty, if only by virtue of a hung jury.

Anyone who witnessed the practically incoherent 40-minute diatribe Trump delivered Friday morning at Trump Tower, in what was billed as a press conference but at which not a single question was asked, could see that he was deeply affected by the trial.

To make matters worse — or to prove that justice is not neutral but a choice — sentencing is scheduled for July 11, just four days before the start of the Republican National Convention that will make his nomination official.