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Recently, Donald Trump submitted signatures as part of the process to qualify for the presidential primary ballot in Maine. While the former president tries to become president again, and works to get on the ballot in Maine and across the country, we hope American voters will also pay attention to the multiple court dockets he is already on.
Four criminal indictments. Ninety-one felony counts. Accusations of mishandling classified information, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., false statements, falsifying business records, corruptly concealing documents. Those are just a few of the many charges that Trump faces in court.
He is, of course, presumed innocent in the criminal justice system until proven guilty. But the weight and totality of these indictments, and the overwhelming evidence both in plain view and in court documents, should easily be disqualifying in the court of public opinion.
And yet, it doesn’t seem to be in the eyes of many Republicans. Trump remains comfortably atop the primary field. The discomforting indication is that many Republicans just don’t seem to care that their potential presidential nominee could very well be a felon by the time of the 2024 general election.
Perhaps when every attempt at accountability is successfully (if inaccurately) cast as a witch hunt, the mounting evidence just doesn’t land with some folks. Certain sources of inconvenient information, including this editorial board, might get tuned out entirely.
Even if people have no interest in listening to us, however, we urge them to listen to the court statements of three now-former Trump lawyers, who have each pleaded guilty related to Trump’s election interference case in Georgia. Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Cheseboro and Sidney Powell all accepted plea deals tied to their roles trying to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss. They also agreed to testify in the ongoing case involving Trump.
“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” a tearful Ellis said in court on Oct. 24 as she pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting false statements and writings.
Powell pleaded guilty to multiple counts of conspiracy to commit intentional interference with the performance of election duties. As part of her plea agreement, she is also required to write an apology letter to the people of Georgia. Cheseboro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit filing false documents and acknowledged writing his own apology letter.
Trump has since tried to distance himself from Powell, claiming she was never his lawyer. But that runs counter to descriptions from both him and Rudy Giuliani that included Powell as part of the Trump legal team following the 2020 election. Once again, don’t fall for it.
“What I did not do, but should have done, Your Honor, was to make sure that the facts the other lawyers alleged to be true were in fact true,” Ellis continued in her Oct. 24 comments before a judge, as reported by Politico. “In the frenetic pace of attempting to raise challenges to the election in several states, including Georgia. I failed to do my due diligence.”
At this point, we think anyone willing to support Trump without carefully considering the mountain of falsehoods he has built his campaign around, and the mountain of significant allegations he continues to face in court, is failing to do their due diligence.
It should be abundantly clear that Trump’s retribution tour masquerading as a campaign is based in large part on a manufactured grievance. He and others have duped a large swath of the American public into believing this falsehood, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Even some of his former lawyers don’t believe it anymore.
You don’t have to listen to us. Just listen to what those former lawyers have said with their words and their formal pleas. For once, they have made convincing arguments.
