In the ’90s film You Got Mail, Tom Hanks shares a truth that is self-evident: “The Godfather is the I Ching. The Godfather is the sum of all wisdom.”
I’ll give you an example. Last Friday night, barely 24 hours after the thrice-indicted criminal defendant promised in court that he would not try to intimidate witnesses against him, he fled to social media, dove to the depths of his bottom black hole, and pawed this beaut:
“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!”
Just like doomed mobster Sonny Corleone, who famously said: “They hit us. So, we hit them.”
Actually, Trump’s message wasn’t just aimed at potential witnesses in feds’ coup case (like Mike Pence, whom he attacked in a subsequent message). No, that first missive was arguably aimed at anyone seeking to hold him accountable in all the courts where he has been arraigned – most notably, Jack Smith, D.C. federal judge Tanya Chutkan, the D.A. in the New York hush money case, the classified doc witnesses, the D.A. in Georgia who’s readying indictment #4. He’s basically trying to put a horse’s head in everybody’s bed.
Hey, that’s two for The Godfather.
What’s wrong with this mutt, anyway? Has it somehow not occurred to him that his life-circumstances have radically changed, that he’s now (finally) in the clutches of people who have him dead to rights and will not abide his bullshit? Maybe he’s a master strategist who’s trying to provoke special counsel Smith in ways that will delay the trial he dreads; or maybe he’s just the same old toddler with no impulse control who’s trying to see what he can get away with; or maybe he wants to be thrown in jail for violating his terms of release and is thus auditioning for martyrdom…
But you know what? Who cares. All that matters is that the feds are treating his provocations with speedy disdain.
A few nocturnal hours after the Sonny Corleone rant went public, Smith brought it to Judge Chutkan’s attention and proposed tightening the squeeze on Trump – with a strict “protective order” that would require that Trump not go public with the evidence arrayed against him. (The feds have to share that evidence with the defense, via discovery.) Smith warned in his motion that “If the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details – or, for example, grand jury transcripts – obtained in discovery here, it could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case.”
Judge Chutkan agreed over the weekend to entertain that motion; she set the meeting for tomorrow. But Trump lawyer John Lauro didn’t like that. He said he needed a lot more days to consider the issue (his goal, maybe his only play, is to delay and delay.) Smith again responded speedily, arguing that Lauro had plenty of weekend time to weigh in before Monday. (Lauro frittered away this entire morning, making a fool of himself on the network Sunday shows, insisting, for instance, that Trump’s coup plotting was merely “aspirational,” and that the trial should be moved to West Virginia.) Lauro got nowhere with the judge; she told him to show up on time tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Trump is demanding that the judge be taken off his case (she’s a Black woman with a law degree, his worst nightmare), and he’s attacking potential trial witness Mike Pence (“He’s delusional and now he wants to show he’s a tough guy”). At minimum – and who knows, it may come to this – the judge may have no choice but to haul him back into court to explain his behavior, warn him anew about his conditions of release, and basically impress upon this sociopath that the game has changed and he’s beholden to the rule of law.
Assuming that Chutkan and Smith continue to sidestep Trump’s sideshows, the odds seem excellent that we’ll have a coup trial before the ’24 election. Trump will claim he did nothing wrong, as is his right, but whenever I hear him say that, I’m tempted to channel Michael Corleone, speaking to his treacherous brother-in-law:
“Don’t tell me that you’re innocent. Because it insults my intelligence. And it makes me very angry.”
Hey, that’s three for The Godfather.