Former President Donald Trump’s hush money felony conviction resulted not from a rush to judgment but a years-long legal process “winding through two different prosecutors’ offices, multiple grand juries and numerous levels of the court system stretching twice up to the Supreme Court,” as Politico put it. “The investigation lurched through so many different phases — and was so durable — that one former prosecutor dubbed it the ‘zombie’ case.”

The case centered on a $130,000 payment by Trump to his personal attorney Michael Cohen purportedly for legal fees. However, The Wall Street Journal reported in January 2018 that the money had in fact been reimbursement to Cohen for paying adult movie actress, director and businesswoman Stephanie A. Gregory Clifford – stage name Stormy Daniels – to hush up a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump. That implied that the business records for the transaction had been falsified.

Additionally, the payment was made a month before the 2016 election in which Trump was running for president. Coming so close to the voting, that could be deemed election interference — keeping important information about the candidate from voters. And that would be an even more serious offense.

That possibility attracted the attention of federal authorities and the FBI raided Cohen’s home, office and hotel room. He subsequently disclosed a separate payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal to cover up a 10-month affair with the candidate, all “for the benefit of, at the direction of, and in coordination with” Trump. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign violations and was eventually sentenced to three years in prison.

Then Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance opened an investigation into whether the payments violated New York state law. However, federal prosecutors asked him to hold off on his probe, Politico reported. Those prosecutors uncovered evidence of possible crimes but, by then, Trump was in the White House and no charges were filed in keeping with Department of Justice policy not to prosecute a sitting President and they closed their investigation. Vance’s office resumed its investigation.

Trump refused to turn over financial records, claiming executive immunity, a dispute that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled against him in July 2020. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that “no citizen, not even the President, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.”

Vance’s office received the documents in February 2021 but his prosecutors had not decided on possible charges. Vance announced on March 12 that he would not seek re-election. That November, voters elected Alvin Bragg to replace him and he took the oath of office in January 2022. In March 2022, veteran retired federal prosecutor, Mark Pomerantz, whom Vance had hired specially for the Trump case, resigned. He stated in his resignation letter, according to The New York Times, that his investigation indicated that Trump was “guilty of numerous felony violations” but that Bragg did not want to proceed with the case, which was “misguided and completely contrary to the public interest.” He added in his letter to Bragg, “I and others have advised you that we have evidence sufficient to establish Mr. Trump’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and we believe that the prosecution would prevail if charges were brought and the matter were tried to an impartial jury.”

Bragg denied that he was dragging his feet and, by January 2023, his prosecutors began presenting evidence to a grand jury. Cohen and Clifford testified; Trump did not. On March 30, the grand jury indicted Trump on 34 felony charges accusing him of falsifying business records. He was indicted five days later — and the rest was history in the making. The indictment was significant because it also involved election interference.

Trump was arraigned on April 4, 2023, and his mugshot was taken. His request to move the trial out of New York was denied. It began this April 15, before acting New York State Supreme Court judge Juan Merchan, who was selected randomly by a computer, as is standard procedure. Prosecution and defense attorneys screened more than 500 New Yorkers before a jury of seven men and five women and six alternates was empaneled. Twenty prosecution witnesses testified, including Cohen and Gifford, and two for the defense; again, Trump did not.

The jury deliberated for just over than nine hours over two days before reaching a guilty verdict on all counts, ending a trial that lasted six weeks and making Trump the first sitting or former president a convicted felon. A probation officer interviewed Trump Monday for a report recommending punishment. The defense and prosecution will address the judge in coming days on their sentencing requests. Merchan will pass sentence on July 11, ranging from probation to jail time. His lawyers say they will appeal after that.

As to whether Trump was accorded due process, the 6th Amendment to the Constitution states: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”

Trump maintains his innocence -just as he still insists that he won the 2020 election. And, just as happened after the 2020 election, his defenders immediately began railing against the verdict.

To Sen. Marco Rubio, it was the “quintessential show trial.” He likened it on FOX News to “what you see in Communist countries,” including “in the days after the Castro revolution. Obviously, those led to executions. This, on the other hand, is an effort to interfere in an election.” The Miami Herald’s Editorial Board rejected that comparison.

To Sen. Rick Scott , the trial was “just despicable,” adding, “It is a crime in this country to use the court system to go after your political opponents. What is happening in this courtroom is clearly criminal.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on social media, “In America, the rule of law should be applied in a dispassionate, even-handed manner, not become captive to the political agenda of some kangaroo court.” He pledged as head of the Florida Clemency Board to restore, if necessary, the voting rights of Trump, who relocated to Florida in 2019. He has, however, not shown similar concern for tens of thousands of Florida’s ex-felons seeking restoration of their rights.

At the national level, House Speaker Mike Johnson criticized “the weaponization of our justice system” and urged the Supreme Court to “step in.” Tim Scott of South Carolina, the lone African American Senator, talked about “a hoax, a sham.”

Trump, meanwhile, is renewing his threat of retribution against his enemies, if elected in November. “You know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to,” he said on Newsmax. “And it’s possible that it’s going to have to happen to them.” Stephen Miller, a senior Trump adviser, called on Republicans to “unshackle themselves from their self-imposed restraints.” In a FOX News interview, Miller said, “Every facet of Republican Party politics and power has to be used right now to go toe-to-toe with Marxism and beat these Communists.” Eight Republican senators, including Rubio and Scott, collectively pledged to block legislation where possible.

Writing in The New Yorker not about the trial but about the files of the former East Germany’s brutal Stasi secret police, journalist Burkhard Bilger remarked, “Dictatorships depend on the willing. They can’t rule by compulsion alone. People support them to gain power or advance their careers, because they like giving orders or take comfort in receiving them. They act on their prejudice or pocketbook, religious beliefs or political ideal at first, then on their fear. They may not realize what they’re supporting until it’s too late.”

Ain’t that the truth.