The MSNBC journalist entered the courtroom where The Donald was found guilty of all 34 charges. A debate full of twists and turns
Finally, after seven weeks, I no longer had to leap out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to rush to the Southern Courthouse in Manhattan where Donald J. Trump he was on trial. Getting a seat in the room, even for accredited journalists like me, was a challenge every time. It meant standing in line for hours: in the cold, in the rain, in the heat. On the most important days – those with opening or closing sessions of the trial, or when well-known figures such as Stormy Daniels or Michael Cohen – the queue started even before dawn. If you wanted, you could turn to the save-my-place-in-the-queue professionals, the improvised Line Dudes, who set up the tents the night before and for 50 dollars an hour held your place in the queue. The weeks of the trial were the Hunger Games of journalists, but it was worth it. In return we had a front row seat to the trial of the century.
I was in that courthouse every single day, sometimes in the overcrowded press room, sometimes in the courtroom itself, just steps away from the former president. Tempers are still hot after a jury representing the population declared Trump guilty of all 34 counts. And believe me: whatever you read about the tension and twists and turns, Donald Trump’s trial was even more dramatic in real life.
Donald Trump he did not hide his admiration for well-known mafiosi, such as Capone or Gotti. Instead, she spoke passionately about how they, when on trial, never showed fear or weakness—a demeanor that Trump has blatantly attempted to emulate. Every morning, he walked into the courtroom and peered at her, lips pursed, making eye contact with his allies and frowning at the others. As photographers came in at the start of each day to take the “official” photo, Trump stared straight into the camera as if projecting strength. Instead, as has been widely known, Trump kept his eyes closed during the lawyers’ testimony and arguments. Sometimes he even appeared to be asleep, at others it seemed that he used his eyes closed strategically as if to signal that he was above everything else that was happening in the classroom.
Honestly, you can’t blame him. They were long and exhausting days. The courtroom itself was a far cry from the opulent environment Trump is accustomed to, with the addition of bare walls, uncomfortable wooden chairs, dirty bathrooms. When the trial began on April 15, it was freezing in the chamber, something Trump himself complained about. Eventually, as temperatures rose, the heat became unbearable. It may be that Trump often kept his eyes closed simply wishing it would all be over, or that he actually slept, but in fact the events in that courtroom were indeed shocking. Someone please start the casting for the related Hollywood production, because the main witnesses – Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels, David Pecker, Hope Hicks – they were all absolutely enthralling.
Hope Hicks, for starters: When the former model turned White House communications director burst into tears on the witness stand, the gasps were audible. And it wasn’t just because she was crying, but because of what she had said. She had just exposed a private conversation with Donald Trump in which he admitted to cash payments to Stormy Daniels – a real knockout blow by the prosecution. David Pecker, the former editor of the National Enquirer, considers Trump a friend and mentor, yet his testimony was damning against Trump. Pecker’s activity of gathering “compelling and guaranteed success” stories to help his old friend can be considered deplorable. At the trial, however, Pecker presented himself as a well-intentioned grandfather, making the words that placed Trump at the proverbial scene of the crime even more convincing.
Stormy Daniels she testified with all the energy of a Julia Roberts playing Erin Brokovitch. When Trump’s lawyers tried to make her uncomfortable by leveraging shame, she was not intimidated. She described how she emerged from the bathroom in Trump’s hotel room to find him lying on the bed wearing only his underwear. She described feeling her room start to spin around her and her blood draining from her hands. Prosecutors later called Daniels a “walking, talking reminder” that what Trump said in the Access Hollywood tape about grabbing women by the genitals “weren’t just locker room jokes.” And then there was Michael Cohen. Trump’s former fixer-turned-star witness, despite all the fuss about him being a hothead and a liar, was completely unflappable once he took the witness stand.
Perhaps the most notable figure in that courtroom was Judge Juan Merchan, who, despite everything Trump continued to say about him, behaved almost like a biblical figure: fair, patient, kind, level-headed, determined to protect jurors and the sanctity of proceedings. Merchan was so gracious, in fact, that on the few occasions when he raised his voice (usually because Trump’s lawyers were testing his patience) the entire courtroom immediately sat down and gave him their full attention.
We don’t know what will happen now. Will Trump be sentenced to prison time? Will the trial have any weight in the next elections? It is not clear. But we can take comfort in the fact that the American justice system has worked and, at least for now, the rule of law in America is still alive and well.
*Lisa Ferri is a journalist-producer for the MSNBC television chain. In the past you also worked for CBS and ABC and won a Grammy Award
** Translation by Marina Lazzerini
