The conversation about Donald Trump’s legal troubles has shifted. It no longer is if he is beyond the reach of federal law enforcement; it is about what might happen if he is actually found guilty.
Already, reports have surfaced that time in a prison lockup just won’t happen as the Secret Service would not be able to fulfill its mission of safeguarding the ex-president for as long as he lives. Erase from your imagination Trump in an orange jump suit.
If not a federal penitentiary, then what. Probably, house arrest, restrictive confinement to his residence, Mar-a-Lago, an electronic ankle bracelet his constant companion. Probably confinement to non-public areas of the Mar-a-Lago resort.
Perhaps most galling to Trump would be a restriction on his venturing away from Mar-a-Lago to play a round of golf.
Of course, such a restriction would come from the sentencing judge. Assuming the judge throughout the case is Aileen M. Cannon, there is no guarantee that Trump would not get away with just a slap on the wrist type of punishment. Cannon, after all, is the federal judge appointed by Trump who issued several rulings that, before they were overturned by an appeals panel, for a time stymied special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation.
Having been widely and publicly chastised, would Cannon continue to show deference to Trump or would she hone closer to traditional law?
Trump is a deep believer in the precept there is no such thing as bad publicity. Like others before him, including Mae West, P.T. Barnum and W.C. Fields, Trump’s credo seems to be, “I don’t care what the newspapers say about me, as long as they spell my name right.”
Even if found guilty and confined to Mar-a-Lago, Trump would still be able to run for, and even win, the presidency in 2024. If he wins, could he pardon himself? Who knows, though I would think the fact that he didn’t pardon himself before leaving office in January 2021 might make some believe a president cannot self-pardon. Let’s let the constitutional scholars argue that one out.
Turning back to the trial of the 37 charges leveled against him, would his trial be televised or livestreamed? If so, would Trump seize the spotlight to be the star of what surely would be the biggest audience of any trial in history? Much bigger than O.J.’s.
Would Trump be a witness in his own defense? As the video of his deposition in the E. Jean Carroll lawsuit alleging rape, sexual abuse and defamation demonstrated, he is a loose cannon. He cannot be counted on to provide simple straightforward answers. He loves the sound of his voice. Since he considers himself the smartest person in any room he cannot be expected to stifle his emotions. He might well blurt out incriminating statements, similar to what prosecutors already have on tape where he boasted of having classified documents that he could not declassify because he no longer is president.
We, the audience, will be witnesses to a fascinating period of jurisprudence in our nation’s history. Donald Trump may be the defendant, but the outcome of his alleged crimes will have a profound impact on the future of our country as a bastion of equal justice for all.
