On Tuesday morning, former president Donald Trump’s hush-money and election-interference trial will resume in Manhattan as the prosecution continues to put on its case, alleging that Trump committed election fraud, then falsified paperwork to cover it up.
The trial is one-week old and threatens to drag on for at least another few weeks, and Trump has fallen asleep on several occasions, then complained after every session — about having to stand trial, about the decrepit and cold courtroom, about the lack of pro-Trump protesters outside, about just about everything.
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Well, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, host of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” offered Trump free legal advice on Monday night. Her plan: Plead guilty, eliminate all but one or two of the 34 charges, suffer the consequences and get back to the campaign.
“The former president will once again be forced to sit in silence at a most unglamorous old courtroom, trying to stay focused and engaged for a whole day’s proceedings, just to have to do it again and again and again and again and again in coming weeks,” Maddow said. “And ... I have kind of a wild take on this.
“If I were Trump, I would plead guilty. I would try to plead it on down to a single count, If I could. Pay the fines, take the business punishment or whatever, do the five minutes of jail time, call yourself a martyr for it. Raise a lot of money and you’ll have Secret Service in there. You’ll be fine.
“But if you did that, you could make this thing come to and end. You could shorten this process, you can get out of that courtroom and get back on the campaign trail. You can avoid the punishment of having to show up for court every day,” Maddow added.
“This is likely the only one of his trials that’s happening before election day. If he gets out and campaigns and runs the campaign he wants to, he will be President-Elect as of November and then then all the trials will go away anyway.
“I know it’s a wild take, but if he doesn’t pull that ripcord, if he doesn’t change his plea to guilty, if he sticks it out, this is going to be another six weeks. How much worse is this going to get for him?”
MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin countered with two points: Prosecutors probably would not agree to let Trump plead guilty; and if he pleaded guilty, Trump would be sentenced immediately, because Judge Juan Merchan likely would not agree to postpone the sentencing until after the election.
Gary Farro, the banker for former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, will resume his testimony on Tuesday. Cohen was instrumental in making a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged affair with Trump, and Farro helped Cohen take a home-equity loan to make the payment, which Trump allegedly repaid. The court also heard from the former president’s longtime executive assistant, Rhona Graff.
Also lurking is Merchan’s ruling on whether Trump will be held in contempt of court for violating a gag order imposed on him to stop attacks on witnesses, jurors and court staff.
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