Tomorrow

State Funeral

Tomorrow will have all the gravity of a state funeral.  We’ll watch “the motorcade” leave Trump Tower, and weave its way four miles through the New York streets to the Court House. I’m sure they’ll be cameras stationed at every intersection along the way (further snarling traffic).  Maybe some young MAGA tourist will echo President Kennedy’s funeral and salute the black SUV’s as they go by.  When they get to the Court House, it’s not likely the Secret Service will exit the twice-impeached former President at the front door.  It’s a Court House and there’s surely a “Sally Port” entrance through an underground garage.  Will see the motorcade slide into the building, with maybe with a profile glance of the former President in the window.

Mr. Trump will be escorted upstairs, booked, “mug-shotted”, and fingerprinted.  He’ll be “arrested”, and read his rights.  But he won’t be put in a cell, or stripped searched.  He’s not going to be detained.  Eventually he’ll be escorted (no handcuffs) down the hall to the Courtroom, the same hall where his finance guy, Alan Weisselberg, was walked not so long ago.  The indictment will be read, and his lawyer (likely not Trump) will plead a firm “not guilty”.  The judge will set the terms of release, bail or on his own recognizance, and whatever other restrictions are appropriate.  Maybe he’ll just tell the former President to stop threatening the District Attorney and his staff.  

Unprecedented

Then Mr. Trump will get back in the motorcade and head for the airport.  There’s a speech scheduled from the ballroom of Mara Lago on Tuesday night.  As Donald Trump has always said, better to get bad publicity than no publicity.  The attention of the Nation, both his followers and his detractors, is fully focused on HIM.  No reason for the former President to waste the opportunity; there’s money to raise, and victimhood to stoke.  

“Unprecedented” is the overused word of our millennium.  For the past eight years, since Donald Trump came down that “golden escalator” in Trump Tower, much of what he’s done is “unprecedented” in American history.  So I guess it shouldn’t surprise anyone, that Donald Trump is the first former President ever brought up on charges. 

And it won’t be as unprecedented if he’s brought up on more charges in Atlanta at the beginning of next month.  His demand for Georgia’s Secretary of State to find enough votes for him to win, was election interference committed in plain view.  And now we know that the Federal classified document Grand Jury heard new evidence.  Trump himself was rummaging through the boxes of classified documents, and ordered his attorneys to lie to the Federal agencies.  Not only did he keep classified documents and defy subpoenas for their recovery, he obstructed justice and suborned perjury.  It’s hard to see how the Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, can avoid indicting him for that.

But all of these charges are preliminary to the “main show”.  

Main Show

Donald Trump may be found guilty of the “porn star” charges.  He should be guilty of election tampering in Atlanta (though a Republican Governor might step in and end that with a pardon).  And Jack Smith likely will win on the classified documents case.  But the “main show” is the other Federal Grand Jury in Washington, conducting the investigation into the January 6^th Insurrection.  If…if…if; if Jack Smith can make the direct connection through Mark Meadows from the rioters to Donald Trump, they can charge him with conspiracy to disrupt the US Congress.  And that charge carries three penalties:  $10,000 fine, up to ten years in prison, and disqualification from ever holding Federal office.

The MAGA crowd doesn’t really care about the “porn star” stuff.  That’s been “baked into” the Trump persona since the “Access Hollywood” tapes.  In fact, it kind of helps Trump’s image with some – “wow, he can ‘do it’ with a porn star!!”.   And the “perfect call” with Secretary Raffensperger will be read as simply a man asking for a “recount”.

Heart of the Matter

But the Insurrection case cuts to the heart of the matter.  MAGA-world is still convinced that it wasn’t a riot.  The believe, really believe, that the Insurrection was just a peaceful protest.  In spite of what we saw with our own eyes that day, they think the “peaceful protestors” were “driven” into the building by “police tear gas”, and lead on by “Antifa agitators”.  The shooting of one of those protestors was a “murder”, and the whole event a Democrat leftist plot.

So, if…if…if, if the twice-impeached former President is indicted for conspiracy to commit insurrection, don’t be surprised when the real reaction shows up.  That’s the big one, the charge that will go completely against the grain of MAGA world.   It’s the charge that could finally end our long national nightmare of Trump.  And it’s the charge that could fracture our Nation.