Democrats, progressives cheering Trump verdict should be mourning this loss instead

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A Manhattan jury rendered its verdict on Donald Trump last week. The flimsy prosecution by District Attorney Alvin Bragg may have succeeded in harming Trump’s legal and political fortunes, especially in a close race. But it will come at the cost of unpredictable damage to our constitutional order.

Once again, Democrats have sacrificed the institutions and norms that have buttressed our political stability to stop a single individual who threatens their vision of democracy.

In last Thursday’s verdict, the jury unanimously agreed on a complicated set of facts that may well not add up to a criminal violation. It found that in 2016, Trump had paid porn star Stephanie Clifford (stage name, Stormy Daniels) $170,000 to keep silent about an alleged affair. That in itself does not violate the law.

The jury must have agreed with Michael Cohen, Trump’s lawyer at the time, that Trump improperly filed these payments as "legal expenses" rather than as a contribution to his own presidential campaign. This might be a misdemeanor, worthy of a fine, but not by itself a felony.

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And the jury must have concluded that this bookkeeping error was secretly an attempt to enable some greater crime, such as violating federal campaign or tax