Arraignment Day 2023

Today in the US, we again experimented with a new national commemorative holiday: Arraignment Day for Donald Trump.

The Details?

Following on the heels of Indictment Day, the next step happened today.

Details? Well, not so much. Arraignments are usually pretty straightforward affairs, more or less bookkeeping. Trump showed up in propria persona, pled not guilty, and left.

Of course there was weirdness:

• Trump didn’t have to get a mugshot. They used a public photo instead.
  • However, his co-defendant in these matters, Mr. Nauta, did have to do so.
• Trump was not remanded into custody. Instead, he repaired to a local Cuban restaurant, center of the very conservative, very Republican, elders of the Cuban exile community in Miami, and threw a little party. Then he departed on his private jet for his private club in New Jersey.
  • However, other people who have concealed/passed on classified docs go directly to jail, even before indictment, let alone arraignment. Perhaps they “threw a little party” in their cells. I guess a cell is very slightly like a private club?

Tell me again about how we don’t have 2 tiers of justice in the US.

Well, it’s slow. But it’s progress. Of a sort.

The Weekend Conclusion

Your handy US progress meter:

• Indictment Day, when the US Department of Justice decides there’s a criminal case against Trump ready to try. Done 2023-Jun-08!
• Arraignment Day, when Trump will have to appear in court to enter a plea. Done today!
• Conviction Day, when some semblance of law and order will be restored to the US.
• Sentencing Day, when we can all breathe a sigh of relief and look forward to hearing nothing about the imprisoned Donald Trump ever again. (Until, perhaps, an obituary. As to the obituary, we look forward to relying upon the advice of Clarence Darrow.).

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Notes & References

1: Nah.