At last! Some level of accountability for the biggest criminal scofflaw ever to infest the Oval Office. Fond of setting records, on 30 May 2024 Donald J. Trump entered the history books yet again, as the only former US President, and presumptive GOP nominee, to be convicted of a felony. And not just one – the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict on each of the 34 criminal counts against him.
The witness box, that is. And the pecker in question is David Pecker, National Enquirer publisher, long-time Trump friend and political ally, and currently exhibit A in the Manhattan DA’s criminal case against the former US president. Everybody knew that Pecker, once he’d gone soft on Trump, was gonna spew, but nobody knew how hard he could make it for The Donald. (And that’s the last of the cheap double entendres you’ll get from me in this article. Maybe.)
The first of Donald Trump’s four pending criminal trials began on Monday, 15 April 2024, with jury selection. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was also Tax Day, and without doubt, the ordeal of Trump on trial will be taxing for us all. Trump kicked off the event with a series of his trademark untruths as he bloviated to reporters before entering the Manhattan courtroom for his trial’s appointed start time of 9:30 AM EDT. The former president characterized the proceedings as “persecution,” “an attack on a political opponent,” and “an assault on America,” averring that “every legal scholar says this case is nonsense” and an “outrage.”
None of that is true, but Trump did state one accurate fact: “Nothing like this has ever happened before, there’s never been anything like it.” Indeed, this is the first criminal prosecution of a former US president and current presidential candidate in history. Congrats, Donnie! You’ve just set two new records!
