POLITICS, LAW, ELECTIONS
Stop The Steal
What is the Trump Criminal Trial About?
Sometimes, I’m amazed by how clueless people can be. An example arose the other day with a well-intentioned citizen who couldn’t understand why news media would waste so much time on the ongoing trial of Donald Trump in New York City. Paraphrasing, his comment went something like this:
Why should I care that Donald Trump fucked a porn star? Bill Clinton got blow jobs in the Oval Office, and got away with it. What’s the big deal? Why should anyone care? — anonymous confused citizen (2024)
Let’s set aside the factual errors in that statement. Clinton was charged with lying to a Federal judge in a deposition. While he was not convicted in his impeachment (a political proceeding), he lost his law license.
There are other reasons for confusion. The Trump defense team has made a deliberate effort to obscure the facts and distort the issues in this case. The details have come out over time in a series of unconnected stories. And, as usual, the press has been so focused on the details of each day that it fails to provide necessary context. But statements like the one above push me to pull together what this trial is about. Let’s begin with what this trial is not:
- This trial is not about…
