Donald Trump does not like judges. They frighten him, and tend to rule against him. And he does not like juries either. A jury of his peers just convicted him of 34 felonies involving a secret hush money payoff to a porn actress.
As a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, I acquired a great respect for jury verdicts. True, juries may not always leave their prejudices at the courthouse steps. But experience shows that juries take seriously their duty to set aside their biases and decide where the truth lies.
Jurors generally adhere to the instruction of the court that they are to render a fair and impartial verdict. After the trial of Paul Manafort, whom Trump later pardoned, a juror who identified herself as a Trump supporter was interviewed and said, “I did not want Paul Manafort to be guilty, but he was, and no one’s above the law.”
Had the verdict been one of acquittal or a hung jury — as many so-called legal experts (not I) predicted — would Trump have said the trial was rigged? Not a chance.
Trump despises the legal system and the rule of law, except when it serves his interests. He would use the law to try to lock up his political enemies, immigrants or even protesters chanting “Black Lives Matter,” but that’s about as far as it goes.
Trump’s disdain for the legal system is inherited from his father Fred, and nourished by his 13-year relationship with the disbarred lawyer/fixer Roy Cohn. It has been manifest throughout his professional life. Fred Trump thought he could get away with discrimination against Black tenants in the buildings he owned. Cohn thought the law was about who the judge was.
And now Trump stands a convicted felon, convicted in a New York criminal court of 34 felonies by a jury, consisting of seven men and five women, drawn from the community where Trump rose to fame. Convicted, he can do no more than attack the judge, lie about the evidence and try to undermine the jury verdict, calling his prosecution Biden-directed, part of a political vendetta, a “witch hunt” that is making him a political prisoner.
President Biden has called out Trump over his conviction and his contempt for the verdict. Speaking at a Connecticut fundraiser recently, he said:
For the first time in American history a former president who is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency.
But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.
The threat that Trump poses would be greater in a second term than it was in his first term. This isn’t the same Trump who got elected in 2016. He’s worse.
Something snapped in him when he lost in 2020. He can’t accept he lost, and it is literally driving him crazy.
Early indications suggest that Americans support the judgment of the Trump jury. A new poll from Data for Progress finds that 56 percent of likely voters approve of the jury finding Trump guilty on all 34 counts; 38 percent disapprove.
Jury verdicts have a certain sanctity in American life. In many countries, disputed issues of fact are decided by judges or bureaucrats, not ordinary people drawn from the community. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”
The jury system is a critical component of our constitutional system. It is how we are required to resolve litigated disputes in society. If Trump does not like the outcome of his trial, he can appeal.
The term “verdict” comes from the Latin, meaning to tell the truth. A jury told the truth about Donald Trump. It will soon tell the truth about Hunter Biden. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Good old American fair play.
Does politics enter into it? Yes, but not in the sense that Trump uses it. Alexis de Tocqueville, commenting on America, wrote that: “The jury is above all a political institution. … It places the real direction of society in the hands of the governed, or of a portion of the governed, instead of leaving it under the authority of the government.”
James D. Zirin, author and legal analyst, is a former federal prosecutor in New York’s Southern District. He is also the host of the public television talk show and podcast Conversations with Jim Zirin.