In this media landscape, defendants can't cede the playing field to the prosecution
By Gary Abernathy
As Trump has proven, remaining silent only benefits the prosecutors and media types who are out to get you
In all my years as a reporter covering police and the courts, I was always struck by the imbalance in the unspoken rules of pre-trial publicity. Arrests, charges and indictments were typically trumpeted by police and prosecutors with press releases, press conferences and interviews boasting about their conquests, leaving little doubt about the guilt of the alleged perpetrators and promising “justice” via a swift conviction.
Defendants, on the other hand, were usually mum, leaving it to their attorneys to speak for them – with the lawyers usually saying little more than, “My client looks forward to defending himself against these charges in court.”
Donald Trump has turned that paradigm on its head, and rightfully so. The New York case involving alleged hush money is particularly political in nature. The federal charges Trump faces have more merit, but they should have been brought long ago if they were going to be brought at all, rather than waiting until as late as last year, leading to trials in the middle of the 2024 election season. Trump’s daily expressions of outrage and victimization are hardly out of order against a prosecutorial and media army aligned against him and routinely pronouncing him guilty.
I’m a supporter of law enforcement. I admire the men and women who keep us safe on our streets and in our homes, and I admire prosecutors and judges who work in our court systems. But I also appreciate the rights of the accused, and I recognize the near helplessness sometimes of defendants against the power and purse strings of the state. It’s often not a fair fight. God help everyone left to the resources of public defenders.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the most interesting local cases I ever covered was when charges were brought against Drew Hastings, a nationally known comedian who was serving as the mayor of Hillsboro, Ohio. The parallels with Trump and Hastings were always striking. Both were politically incorrect. Both amassed a long list of haters and enemies. It’s funny that in both cases their hair was a subject of frequent commentary, Trump with his unique, wispy comb-over, Hastings for his rock star-style coif reminiscent of Rod Stewart circa 1970s -- particularly hard to miss due to his 6’6 height.
Failing to defeat him in two mayoral elections, Hastings’ enemies finally directed their antipathy toward him into legal attacks. A special prosecutor was appointed from the Ohio Auditor’s Office, and a months-long investigation ensued, with law enforcement officers even searching the mayor’s home and documenting his wife’s underwear and their child’s toys. Rather than suffer it all quietly, Hastings routinely blasted the probe and issued numerous statements complaining about the politics of it all.
When the indictments were finally returned in July of 2016, then-Auditor Dave Yost said in a prepared statement, “Mr. Hastings has long complained about the length of time a careful, proper investigation takes. That investigation is now complete, and the evidence will be made public appropriately, in a court of law. I am confident the jury of his peers will find that evidence amounts to proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Hastings responded, “I am only guilty of trying to represent our citizens without the consent of an established political structure.”
Sound familiar?
Hardly a week went by without Hastings publicly commenting on the case against him, casting himself as the victim of a political witch hunt. Eventually, the visiting judge presiding over the case threw out two of the four charges against Hastings, and the jury – seeing through the politics – acquitted him on the other two charges. But the whole episode put the Hastings family through a personal and legal nightmare.
I’ve come to believe over the years that contrary to staying quiet, defendants should protest their innocence publicly, loudly and as frequently as they can. They should claim political persecution, or prosecutorial bias, or any other claim of unfairness that might work. Why? Because the other side does exactly the same thing. From Day One, law enforcement and prosecutors will pronounce the suspect guilty and insist that their case is iron-clad. They will do everything in their power to convict the defendant in the court of public opinion long before the first juror is chosen.
Completely lost is the legal concept that everyone is considered innocent until proven guilty. Is Trump treated with the presumption of innocence on CNN, MSNBC or any other far-left (formerly mainstream) media outlet? I’ll wait until you stop laughing.
Fair is fair. It’s completely baffling to see judges issue gag orders against Trump while his accusers and witnesses against him do interviews pronouncing him guilty. Trump can’t mention Michael Cohen, while Cohen does interviews ripping Trump. Amazing. Trump can’t point out that the judge presiding over his case has a daughter who basically devotes her life to political attacks against Trump. Wow.
In the media world in which we find ourselves – especially digital media where everyone has a podcast, and news, information and gossip permeate our lives 24/7 – it’s foolish to cede the spin war to the other side. Juries ARE influenced by what is being said in the media, despite instructions to avoid reading or watching any of it. Failing to acknowledge that fact and failing to take full advantage of it would be a dereliction of duty and a shirking of responsibility by defendants and their attorneys.
Trump has fun, which drives some people nuts
Watching Trump work a sidewalk crowd in New York City on Thursday before one of his trials resumed was fun. Love him or hate him, it’s denying reality to claim he isn’t entertaining.
Trump said that he was leading in the polls everywhere by “a lot.” He said he’s going to run “very hard” in New York. He said Jimmy Carter “is very happy” because Joe Biden’s presidency makes Carter look great by comparison. His hubris is unabated and, frankly, just hilarious.
He practically winks at reporters as he rolls out his patter.
The thing about Trump is that he’s just having fun – even in the midst of being a defendant at a trial, even standing in the middle of reporters who mostly hate him, even as his haters try to portray him as angry or bitter, he just keeps having fun and taking none of it seriously, which drives some people crazy.
Those who despise him can’t get under his skin, while he, meanwhile, lives rent free in their heads.
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