It is extremely rare for a multimillionaire to be thrown in jail before trial. This will obviously put the "fear of god" into potential Trump witnesses. We also saw today that Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen has declared that he's open to testifying.
But there's more. This is like the black swan concept. Once we see there is one, then we know there can be more. And the wealthy will see this. Judges will see this. Defense attorneys will see this. And they will all conclude that a major threshold has been crossed which puts all the powerful wealthy people at risk that they too may see jail time, that they may no longer assume that they can stay out of jail as Glenn Greenwald described in his book, With Liberty and Justice for Some.
So this is good news that could have lasting repercussions. Trump is a human cesspool and it is becoming clearer that everyone and everything he touches turns to sh*t. That's why the only people who are willing to accept job offers from him are morally compromised individuals. Just accepting a job from Trump tells billions of people that you are a sycophantic, corruptible, compassionless person who is willing to lie for Trump.
There are fifty or sixty million Americans who don't think that way, but most of the rest of the world does.
My hope is that prosecutors nationwide will take Manafort's jailing as a cue that new doors are opening, that where before it was impossible to lock up wealthy, powerful suspects behind bars, now it will be more possible and worth trying.
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