I predict Trump will be found guilty. Someone from the NY AGs office will make a statement on the steps of the courthouse.

Then, instead of talking about the win for the rule of law, the focus of ALL the coverage in the mainstream media will be on the appeal.

The legal experts will explain all the ways the ruling can be overturned and how an appeal can take years.
The political experts will wonder if this will hurt Trump’s chances of being elected President.

A New York Times poll will ask “Do you believe the conviction is legitimate?” 57% of the Republican will say no.

Trump’s GOP sycophant’s will question the integrity of the “95% Democrat jury” and wonder “who was on that jury?” setting up their followers to dox them, threaten them and attack them physically.

New attacks on Judge Merchan and his daughter will happen, then right before sentencing, there will be ANOTHER SWATTING attempt at someone’s home, but that won’t lead to any arrests until after the election.

It’s easy to predict this, because we’ve seen this before. It is all part of Trump & the RW’s long term plan to make the left feel demoralized, even following a success.

Even a successful guilty verdict won’t feel satisfying to us because of this plan. What is fascinating is that the other part of the plan is to make the right feel enraged by the left’s success. They aren’t told to “vote harder.” They are told to go and DO SOMETHING. Preferably with violence.

You know that feeling you get with Trump that even when we WIN, it’s not a win? That’s intentional. It’s part of their story about Trump. Teflon Don. What is OUR story about him? Who promotes it? Who repeats if over and over? Does anyone go into the fever swamps of RW social media and question their view of him? And if they do, does it even matter?

Who challenges RW spokespeople in their bubble? Who challenges them outside of their bubble? Would it make a difference?

Who exposes the RW politicians’ fear of being killed by the MAGA base? For example, has anyone been arrested for threating Republican Don Bacon’s wife?
GOP Rep. Says Wife Slept With Loaded Gun After Threats Over His Jim Jordan Vote

Who is helping OUR side tell our story? Are they using the same psyops techniques against the right that are used on the left? Do they use social media tools? Bots?

I’m looking forward to Annalee’s Newitz new book “Stories Are Weapons. Psychological Warfare and the American Mind about how psyops works on the American public. I have a lot of questions for HER, some about how to fight the right, but also about what can be done to help the left.

The Rule of Law Needs a Hype Man

Someone needs to help the DOJ with their PR. They are terrible at PR. Even when they win, they don’t promote their successes. And it’s not just the DOJ, the AGs who are defeating Trump in court need to talk about their wins.
The rule of law needs hype men and women to promote its successes.

Did you know a Florida man who made death threats to a congress member and his kids last year was finally arrested and tried in May, but sentencing won’t be until August.
Michael Shapiro plead guilty to making threats against Rep. Eric Swalwell, and his family.

Did you know that a Texas man, Frederick Francis Goltz, was sentenced to 3 1/2 years for threatening to kill Katie Hobbs, who was then the Secretary of State of Arizona?

Did you see the story about Joshua Russell of Ohio, who was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for threatening Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs?

No? That’s because the DOJ is terrible at PR. They don’t see it as their job to make a big deal of their victories. They put out a press release, have a boring press conference with no great visuals and NOT EVEN A PHOTO OF THE PERSON CONVICTED! Someone needs to do it for them.

The Biden admiration won’t, they are afraid to talk about the success of the DOJ because they know the RW will scream, “SEE! SEE? We TOLD YOU! Biden is behind the DOJ’s prosecutions of his political opponents!”

The Dems are afraid to do more than acknowledge the justice system works when if holds someone on the right accountable for violating the law. They should be going on TV and talking up why it’s good that the law is holding law breakers, who happen to be Republican politicians, accountable. But they MUST! As Michael Tomasky wrote in the New Republic.

If Trump Is Convicted, It’s Democrats’ Job to Make Sure America Cares

Say it again and again: “convicted felon Donald Trump.”

All this puts the onus on team Biden and the Democrats generally to message a guilty verdict relentlessly. At least until the GOP convention and probably beyond, no Democrat elected to federal office should ever say the words “Donald Trump” without saying the words “convicted felon” in front of them. Convicted felon Donald Trump. Over and over and over and over.

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic

To compare, the GOP attacks the justice system, the process, AND the people n the process.

How could this look different? One model for victory is how E. Jean Carroll AND HER LAWYERS talked about her 1st success. But that wasn’t enough, since Trump instantly defamed her again.

They prepared for the attack and won again. The story of her 2nd success was good, they got to talk about the win again. But they still AREN’T done because, the right says “Yeah, but he’s appealing, good luck getting him to pay…”

The MSM legal experts explained the issues about the appeal, the payment of the money, escrow vs bankruptcy and why she will likely collect in 2 years. But there still needs to be more proactive messaging from the winners about the case, because the RW’s PR plan is to minimize our wins at every turn.

For example you will see them say, “Trump wasn’t found guilty of RAPE, stop saying that!” Trolls on X will focus on incomplete success,  “Carroll did not prevail was whether she had proved that Mr. Trump had “raped” her within the narrow, technical meaning of a particular section of the New York Penal Law – New York law Or they will suggest the probability the judgement will be reduced, or that because the case is being appealed, it’s not over.

The winners in the E. Jean Carroll case CAN go out and talk about it, they can push back on more attacks, and they have. They sued again. And won again. Trump attacked E. Jean Carrol AGAIN this weekend. Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan said, “We have said several times since the last jury verdict in January that all options were on the table. And that remains true today — all options are on the table.”

But it’s different when the STATE is the winner. I had a discussion about this with some Team Justice friends recently, and they talked about how it’s just not appropriate for the state, that has the power to take away people’s freedom, to make a big deal outside the courtroom.

Okay, but if THEY shouldn’t do it, because of various rules, norms or they are legally not allowed to do it, then who SHOULD? US! We need to hype the wins! And do it EVERYWHERE! As Tomasky wrote May 27, 2024

[the Democrats] need to do more than that. Democrats don’t just need to fight; they need to fight on the right battlefield. They need to get it through their heads that while cable news matters, and The New York Times and The Washington Post matter, they don’t matter as much as TikTok and Instagram and other social media platforms. There was a Pew study late last year asking people how they got their news. “Digital devices” was number one by a country mile, and print publications dead last.

Michael Tomasky, The New Republic 

We should be promoting the win OUTSIDE THE Courtroom. The case against Trump needs to be fought and won in multiple venues. Media and social media are critical arenas today, and we can’t count on just wins in the courts to save us.