Donald Trump could have testified at the Manhattan trial but declined to go under oath

Echo opinion letter published in the Chicago Tribune: To the Rule of Law❗

Political cartoon published in The Washington Post

History was made in Manhattan on May 30, 2024: An ex-president of the United States was found guilty, by a 12-person jury of his peers, on all 34 counts alleged against him, thus making him the first such office holder to become a convicted felon. The rule of law prevailed, and it is particularly satisfying to someone like me, as a member in continuous good standing of the Illinois bar and a former adjunct law professor.

But while a New York jury won this “battle,” the “war” rages on, given the remarks Donald Trump made immediately after the guilty verdict was read and the jury discharged from its duties. 

Trump asserts — as he has constantly done for years for matters he refuses to accept and for which he is rightly criticized — that the case against him was rigged, that our country is in decline, that the trial judge (Judge Juan Merchan) was against him (though the judge performed admirably) and that he was not tried by his peers (despite his being allowed to testify, though he did not).

In other words, Trump and his minions are attempting to delegitimize our rule of law and the justice system, as we have seen occur in developing nations, even Russia. That will not happen here. It must be up to us Illinoisans — and all voters outside our state, on both sides of the aisle — to ensure that Trump’s warped, dictatorial and disingenuous thinking never prevails and certainly not as the next individual sitting in the Oval Office.

From Miles J. Zaremski, in Highland Park, Illinois (Chicago suberb)