April 30, 2024

Imagine waking up in your lavish high-rise penthouse, donning your trademark blue suit and red tie, hopping into a Black SUV with federal taxpayer-paid Secret Service protection led by local taxpayer-paid New York City police escorts, cruising past barricades erected on public sidewalks in lower Manhattan, hopping out to make a press statement that's basically free advertising for your political campaign then entering a courtroom not handcuffed before falling asleep in the courtroom. 

Can you picture it? No? That's because you're probably not Donald Trump.

(Editor's note: If you are Donald Trump, we invite you to speak with one of our reporters anytime)

Trump's criminal hush-money trial is entering another week. Turn on any cable news network at any hour of the day for updates; we're not here to talk about that. 

The ex-president's trial — which centers on the question of whether payouts to silence adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Trump's one-time mistress Karen McDougal were tantamount to unreported campaign donations and therefore, a crime — is obviously historic as the first time a former American president has stood trial for criminal charges. 

It's also unusual because most people have very different experiences in court. 

Anyone else charged with a crime likely would have had handcuffs slapped on them, been mugshotted, sat in a dirty holding cell for hours or days waiting to see the judge to find out if you'd get a bond, pay it (assuming they could afford to do so). You would almost assuredly get locked up not a slap on the wrist for violating a judge's gag order. You certainly would not get a primo parking space right outside the courthouse.

And they say crime doesn't pay. 

Let's talk about it.

'I had to squat and cough'

As a former president, Donald Trump can't just be treated like every Tom, Dick, Harry, Jim, James, Paul and Tyrone, the argument goes. There are national security implications. Markets could collapse. Sex-thirsty zombie cicadas infected with a bizarre STD fungus could emerge after 17 years. Crazier things have happened.

Despite several somewhat common-sense reasons to not keep a former commander-in-chief on Riker's Island, Trump has had stunningly few conditions on his release in the two state criminal trials. Politico notes that Trump has benefitted from better treatment in the very criminal justice system he has railed against as being "two-tiered."

“I can’t imagine any other defendant posting on social media about a judge’s family and not being very quickly incarcerated,” said Russell Gold, a law professor at the University of Alabama, told the publication, referring to Trump's apparent violation of a gag order.

The magazine also examines Trump's various criminal and civil cases, noting that his fate is in the hands of judges he appointed from South Florida to the U.S. Supreme Court, a privilege not afforded to anyone who hasn't occupied the West Wing. 

A year ago, nonprofit newsroom The Marshall Project published vignettes of people who had been processed through New York courts to highlight the stark differences in treatment between Trump and everyone else. 

One woman named Deshanna Graham, recalled: "They cuffed me behind my back, read me my rights, took me down to the 24th Precinct [in Manhattan], and put me in a holding cell. I was just sitting in there by myself all day trying to figure out what was going on. I called my mom and she came and brought me a sandwich and something to drink."

Trump used at least one of his lunch breaks during his hush-money trial to post a video of a supporter attacking the wife of Juan Merchan, the presiding judge in his case.

Makeda Davis recounted to The Marshall Project of her arrest: "The holding cell was completely filthy. There were a bunch of women in there, maybe nine or 10, and it smelled terrible. I had to strip, and I had to squat and cough. It was just a really awful experience. There were not enough benches for all the women in there. At one point, I was so exhausted that I took my pants off and spread them on the dirty floor so I could lay down and go to sleep."

Trump has been forced to endure no such conditions. Politico reports:

"Each day, during breaks in trial, he’ll stand in the hallway outside the courtroom and denounce the charges. He’ll continue to test the bounds of the gag order. ... He may even mutter 'witch hunt' within earshot of jurors, as he’s done before."

And in the end,  "if Trump is elected president again, all pending criminal cases will stop in their tracks."

Now wouldn't that be special? 

Data points were made

Of course there is a two-tiered justice in America: One benefits white people disproportionate to people of color, especially Black and Latino folks and people of means and wealth disproportionate to lower-income people. Women are more likely to be charged with crimes related to parenting than men due to gender stereotypes about good and bad mothering. 

Here's the real deal about the criminal legal system that regular people experience in America:

—Annually, pretrial detention cost $13.6 billion, according to the Prison Policy Initiative

—On a given day, 500,000 people are in pre-trial detention across the U.S.

—The median bail bond for a felony is approximately $10,000; defendants detained pre-trial lose $29,000 in income on average over a lifetime compared with defendants who are not detained pre-trial 

— The average annual income for men who cannot afford bail is about $16,000; for women it's around $11,000 per year

—Sixty-six percent of women who can't accord bail have minor children

—African Americans comprise 43% of the pretrial population  

—In a 2016 paper published by researchers at the University of Chicago, authors concluded that assignment of cash bail leads to a 6%-9%  increase in recidivism

— The Brookings Institution estimated in 2021 that eliminating cash bail would mean 2.8 million fewer people detained and would increase U.S. income by $81 billion per year

— A case study of New York Sate's 2019 bail reform law echoes these findings. According to FWD.us, two years after the law was enacted, 24,000 fewer people were assigned bail for misdemeanors and nonviolent offenses, and the pre-trial detention population decreased 15% to historic low levels. 

The lower amount of bail collected, $104 million, represents money that households didn't need to "drain from savings needed for healthcare or try to raise by borrowing from their neighbors and family to pay for a loved one’s bail."

As always, never hesitate to inbox me with thoughts, to chat or to rant. 

Peace,

R.L.

Reckon Report by Reckon

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