To the Editor:
Re “Guilty: Jury Convicts Trump on All 34 Counts” (entrance web page, Might 31):
I used to be overcome with a way of giddiness on Thursday afternoon as I walked by way of Manhattan and information broke that former President Donald Trump had been convicted on 34 felony counts.
I used to be glued to the reside information updates on my cellphone, and shortly sufficient messages started pouring in from like-minded buddies who shared my sense of satisfaction that the justice system is alive and nicely, and that the decision confirmed us that nobody is above the legislation.
Nonetheless, it took mere minutes earlier than a extra sober actuality set in, and I contemplated how the decision will probably play into the strategic fingers of Mr. Trump’s marketing campaign, energizing his ardent supporters, even perhaps working in his favor amongst some sympathetic swing voters.
That so many people discover that morally offensive and reprehensible, whereas so a lot of our fellow People merely don’t, reaffirms how deeply and dangerously divided this nation really is.
Cody Lyon
Brooklyn
To the Editor:
Our system of legal guidelines has spoken. A jury of his friends discovered Donald Trump responsible on all counts in what was presupposed to be the weakest of the felony circumstances towards the previous president.
Sadly, our Structure doesn’t prohibit a convicted felon from working for president; it even permits an elected candidate who has been criminally convicted to control, even from jail.
If the Republican Celebration continues to enthusiastically help the presidential candidacy of a convicted felon, will probably be not solely on the peril of our American political social gathering system, however most consequentially on the peril of our democratic future.
Alejandro Lugo
Park Forest, Unwell.
To the Editor:
I’m a progressive Democrat within the Pacific Northwest. I need to thank D.A. Alvin Bragg and his group — and Justice Juan Merchan and the jury of New Yorkers — for his or her braveness, perseverance and steadfastness within the matter of New York v. Donald Trump.
Mr. Trump misplaced his trial. American justice received. Obfuscation and deception misplaced.
All People are higher off in the present day.
John R. Scannell
Sammamish, Wash.
To the Editor:
No, Donald, Justice Juan Merchan just isn’t corrupt; he’s meticulous and sincere. However you wouldn’t know acknowledge honesty.
No, Donald, the trial wasn’t rigged. It adopted prescribed procedures for giving consideration to precise info and the necessities of the legislation. However you wouldn’t know true info because you unfold thick and widespread lies to cowl up your felonies.
No, Donald, this wasn’t political retribution, though that’s what you retain promising in case you ever set foot within the White Home once more. It was bringing you to authorized accountability, as a result of even presidents will not be above the legislation.
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
To the Editor:
I’d by no means vote for Donald Trump, however this explicit prosecution was incorrect. When an brazenly partisan prosecutor fees his political social gathering’s essential opponent for president, there’s a powerful look of bias — definitely stronger than from Samuel Alito’s spouse flying flags.
The looks might be rebutted if the case is so sturdy that not bringing it wasn’t an choice — like a prosecution for taking pictures somebody on Fifth Avenue. This case wasn’t anyplace close to that clear-cut, so the looks of a biased prosecution stays. For as soon as, Mr. Trump’s claims of victimhood ring true.
Mr. Trump received impeached (rightly) for the way in which he used his workplace to focus on a political opponent. The identical accusation might be plausibly made towards the Manhattan district legal professional, Alvin Bragg. Destroying key norms with the intention to derail a norms-destroying politician is like destroying a village with the intention to reserve it.
Ilya Shlyakhter
Belmont, Mass.
To the Editor:
The day that homosexual marriage grew to become authorized, on a sometimes various Manhattan subway, my husband and I congratulated two males who had been clearly on their approach from having simply married at Metropolis Corridor. The gang round us spontaneously erupted in cheers and applause, and I used to be pleased with my metropolis.
Thursday evening I obtained a textual content from a pal that Donald Trump had simply been convicted on all 34 counts. I used to be on a prepare automobile full of commuters that was simply approaching Jamaica station in Queens.
I blurted out the information to my fellow passengers. I’m undecided what I anticipated, however maybe an identical expertise of shared elation, or at the very least delight, within the independence of the judicial system.
Quite the opposite. Most riders confirmed no response and went again to their telephones. A person in his 30s glared at me. A middle-aged man in scrubs, sitting behind me, urgently, and puzzlingly, mentioned, “Kamala is a liar!” Solely the younger girl sitting subsequent to me smiled mildly earlier than returning her consideration to her cellphone.
These of us who hope to influence sufficient residents that American democracy is in danger and value saving this November nonetheless have a whole lot of work to do.
Cecilia Martin Ford
East Hampton, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Lengthy in any case of us are gone, sociologists, authors and dramatists will speculate on how so many on this nation might change into enthralled by the apparent criminality of Donald Trump. A good portion of our society sees his conviction as additional proof of his innocence. He could also be proper; he might shoot a person in the course of Fifth Avenue and lose no votes.
This is the reason this case is so essential. It supplies one other marker for these future historians to know that not all of us had been fooled.
John Cork
Marietta, Ga.
To the Editor:
A jury of 12 brave residents did what Republican leaders refuse to do. They held Donald Trump accountable.
They didn’t succumb to bullying or intimidation. They used their widespread sense, adopted the info and reached a unanimous resolution in a remarkably brief time period.
Whereas I stay deeply involved concerning the corruption and bias within the Supreme Court docket, these jurors restored my religion within the judicial system on the bottom degree.
They gave up seven weeks of their lives to do their obligation, they usually make me really feel hopeful that our democracy stays sturdy and can survive.
Susan Shelton
Falmouth, Mass.
To the Editor:
I’m a Republican-leaning By no means Trumper. I refused to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 regardless of adverse views about his opponents. I had dedicated to do the identical this fall.
However Thursday’s verdict has me reconsidering my place. The prosecutor ran for workplace committing himself to seek out some foundation to prosecute a specific political determine. The prosecution was then launched utilizing a bit of identified and barely used felony idea in a completely new context. Can anybody severely imagine that any particular person apart from Donald Trump would have been subjected to this?
As an American, and one who occurs to be a lawyer, I discover this greater than scary. Possibly I have to vote for Mr. Trump.
Colin Smith
Warrenton, Va.
To the Editor:
The rule of legislation survived its largest check. Donald Trump can now not be known as Teflon Don. He’s now a convicted felon. The query now: Is that whom America needs as a candidate for president?
Susan Berger
Highland Park, Unwell.
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