Jurors Aren't Journalists: Why this Week Is a Turning Point for Donald J. Trump

I spent more time writing here on the True Blue Liberal blog during the 2016 election than I did during the 2020 election or (so far) in the 2024 election, but there was one of the hundreds of blog posts from that election cycle that always stands out for me, because it has become truer and truer as we have gotten to know Donald Trump better and better. On August 17, 2016, my blog post title was a quote from Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now: "When a man's frauds have been enormous there is a certain safety in their very diversity and proportions." You can click on the link to get the context of the longer quote or read the novel to see the position of the longer quote about August Melmotte in the center of a long novel. Knowing Donald Trump and his subsequent history though, the short quote that served as the post title should be self-explanatory. In August 2016, we (voters, the media, casual observers, political professionals of both parties, etc.) had trouble concentrating on the missing Trump tax returns or the fraudulent Trump University or the fraudulent Trump Foundation or the casual racism or the casual sexism or multiple bankruptcies or the Trump modeling agency or the thousands of "minor" lawsuits or Melania's immigration status or... well, you get the picture. It only became worse with scandal after scandal added later in the campaign and during his years in office. On the other hand, all the media needed to focus on about his opponent, Hillary Clinton, is that some of her emails seemed to be missing and that Trump liked to call her "Crooked Hillary" and his followers liked to chant "Lock Her Up." In comparison to that simple story, his stories were muddy and complicated and changed day to day, and that became his best defense.

However, this week that may finally be changing. The jurors who are now assembled at the New York Criminal Court at 100 Centre Street are not being asked to think about stolen classified documents and the January 6th insurrection and alternate electors and the current indictments in Florida and D.C. and Georgia (or on Trump University and tax returns and the hundreds of other scandals from 2016). They are not being distracted by the "very diversity and proportions" of the other frauds of the diminished and sleepy man they are currently facing at the defense table. Their only task for the coming weeks is to look at one story, one group of hush money and election interference felonies involving the National Enquirer, Stormy Daniels, Karen McDougal, and the crimes that sent his long-time lawyer Michael Cohen to federal prison while working in service of "Individual-1." 

The jurors are not journalists who will be distracted by the next shiny object of the news cycle. They have one story to concentrate on. 

I served on a couple of juries in my life, and I have great respect for the process and the seriousness with which jurors take that responsibility -- toward the law and the rights of the defendant -- when they start their deliberations.