These plea deals against Donald Trump are how the original “Teflon Don” went to prison too
For the second day in a row, a prominent co-defendant of Donald Trump cut a very lenient plea deal and agreed to cooperate against Trump. First it was Sidney Powell, and now it’s Kenneth Chesebro. They’re each receiving several years of probation in Fulton County, but no prison time.
Powell and Chesebro will now each pretty much have to cut cooperation deals with Jack Smith (if they haven’t secretly done so already), and those deals might not be quite so lenient. But as it stands, Powell and Chesebro are looking at coming out of this with little or no prison time if they uphold their end of the bargain. And that’s understandably pissing some people off.
After all, these are obviously guilty criminals who played a role in trying to overthrow the United States government. Why should they get to go free? The answer is that they shouldn’t. But I’m reminded of something that my eighth grade social studies teacher once said: there’s nothing fair about plea deals, but they are often the only way for the system to work.
Put another way: would you rather Sidney Powell go to prison, or would you rather Donald Trump go to prison? In a perfect world, the answer would be both! But Trump is the biggest and most dangerous criminal in the history of the United States. He needs to be caged for the rest of his life in order to keep him from trying to overthrow the government, and to send a clear message to other would-be autocrats. In contrast, Powell is a punchline. If you can let Powell off easy in exchange for helping ensure that Trump is going to prison, you have to take that tradeoff. You don’t have to like it. You shouldn’t like it. But you have to take it.
Donald Trump is sometimes referred to as “Teflon Don” for his supposed ability to keep anything from sticking to him. But the original “Teflon Don” was a mob boss named John Gotti. And for all the hype about his supposed invincibility, he ended up spending the rest of his life in prison. How did that happen? One of his top underlings, Sammy “the bull” Gravano, testified against him in exchange for a very lenient plea deal. Gravano murdered several people, and didn’t go to prison for it – but that’s what it took to put Gotti in prison.
So when it comes to giving lenient deals to Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, and whoever else in the case ends up flipping, it’s just an ugly necessity. It’s how you take someone like Donald Trump down. The system shouldn’t work this way, but it’s the only way the system does work.
And let’s not forget that people like Powell are seeing their lives dismantled anyway. She’s coming out of this financially broke, likely disbarred, forever a convicted criminal, having to spend the next six years checking in with her probation officer, and a national punchline. And she’ll also be stuck testifying in trial after trial for years to come. This is not a “good” outcome for her at all. She’s just managing to dodge an even worse outcome, by helping to make sure Donald Trump ends up with the worst outcome possible.
