By Emil Guillermo

Don’t be fooled by the Republican spin. The historic indictment, arrest and arraignment in New York City of the twice-impeached former President Donald J. Trump was not, as one might say, “weak sauce.”

You try defending yourself from 34 felony charges and see how weak the rule of law is.

Trump, the one-time leader of the free world, who still has an illogical hold on the Republican Party, was welcomed into the criminal justice system just like any run-of-the mill Oakland gang member.

And as he sat in court with his attorneys, a tough looking, COVID-mask wearing African American woman police officer, with gloves and handcuffs at the ready, made sure the disgraced president made nary a false move.

All he had to do was scowl and enter his “not guilty” plea.

And that is the point of the entire exercise. He was treated as no different from you or me. His executive privilege, his white privilege, offered him no comfort. No one held the door open as he passed during his “mini-perp” walk into the court.

Before the law he was just a guy with a funny hairdo.

Trump would not be in this predicament if there was no reason to believe he broke real laws in the state of New York. District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the evidence was voluminous.

“It is 34 business records, 344 statements … that were concealing criminal conduct,” Bragg said at a news conference. “Why did Donald Trump repeatedly make these false statements?” Bragg asked rhetorically. “The evidence will show that he did so to cover up crimes relating to the 2016 election.”

Bragg said the felonies center on Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels that kept “damaging information from the voting public.” He said it was part of an illegal scheme that exceeded the federal campaign contribution cap, and then were mis-characterized as income to Cohen rather than as hush money to Daniels.

After the hearing, Trump said on social media that “nothing was done illegally.”

But did it interfere with the 2016 election?

When it comes to the BIPOC community, AAPIs are among the Trumpiest of them all.

Let’s look back at 2016.

Trump got 34% of the Vietnamese vote; 35% of the Chinese vote and 28% of the Filipino vote, according to the Asian American Voter Survey.

The hush money payments to the porn star came days after that damning Access Hollywood tape was released in October. Would another sex scandal have ended Trump’s campaign against Hillary Clinton?

Trump and his backers hold their nose and insist no crime was committed. But even if he survives the New York indictment, there are at least two or three more indictments to come out of the Georgia voting irregularities case, the Florida documents case, and his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection. All are independent of one another and promise a walloping combination that could catch Trump off guard.

Frankly, I would have indicted Trump for his use of the ‘China virus’ and ‘Kung Flu’ slurs that resulted in nearly 12,000 instances of hate transgressions from major to minor against AAPI during the pandemic.

But those aren’t indictable crimes. Just his unindictable crimes against humanity. Still, as an overall BIPOC community, it’s safe to say we have seen enough of his recklessness firsthand.

As the former president makes history today, the larger question is why would any of his supporters continue to back him? Time to move on for the good of the country.

Even Trump at his height of powers would say, “I prefer my political leaders not to be indicted.”

What about those who say Trump’s “innocent until proven guilty?”

Merely a legal standard that applies to those who may serve on one of the specific juries. But it doesn’t necessarily apply to you, the average citizen, says MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.

I tend to agree. We’ve seen with our own eyes Trump in action. We didn’t need this week’s throwback to the OJ/White Bronco caravan on Monday. Nor did we need to follow the minute-by-minute of Trump’s nascent perp-dom.

Americans should blow out the Trump gaslight now. We can still be fair-minded when the trial or trials actually begin and we can watch the rule of law in action in our democracy.

Then we’ll see if Trump is innocent without his spin, lies or bluster.

His new role? The disgraced former president, the forever defendant.

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him at www.amok.com.

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