Teflon Don has walked free again – leaving frustrated Democrats back at square one

They called him the Teflon Don. No matter what John Gotti Jr, head of the fearsome Gambino crime family, was accused of, nothing seemed to stick.

In the 1980s he repeatedly stood trial on charges of racketeering and conspiracy and always found a way out. Witnesses suddenly became forgetful when they found their car’s brake lines cut. Certain jurors proved susceptible to being persuaded to look the other way.

A triumphant Gotti, whose rough charm and love of publicity had made him a celebrity, would emerge beaming from court, eager to get back to his nefarious activities.

Democrats must be feeling a bit like the New York prosecutors of the mid-1980s at the moment. Every time they think they may have enough to snare a president they believe is subverting democracy, he comes out smelling of roses. For them, Donald Trump is the Teflon Don.

First he swerved any serious consequences from the Mueller investigation: despite Don Jr’s meeting in Trump Tower, despite the public “Russia, if you’re listening” invitation, despite a puzzling deference towards Moscow, the former FBI man could find no evidence to suggest formal collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

And now, with the Senate voting to acquit on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress, Trump has dodged another attempt to unseat him.

He will go into November’s election claiming to have been fully exonerated – not once, but twice – as well as pointing towards a Democrat-backed “deep state” conspiracy to stop him from Keeping America Great.

The result of the Senate trial was of little surprise to those of us following proceedings in The Independent’s Washington and New York bureaux – at times it felt like the story would write itself. After all, the prospect of getting 20 Republicans to force their own man out of office in an election year was always a long shot. But it will still feel bitterly frustrating to his opponents.

There is little dispute about the facts: Trump tried to cheat in the upcoming election by secretly pressuring a vulnerable ally into fabricating dirt on a rival, using military aid as leverage. Several Republican senators – Marco Rubio and Lamar Alexander among them – have essentially said they accept this.

The Democratic case, based on Trump and Rudy Giuliani‘s own public statements and a mountain of corroborating evidence from current and former administration officials, was presented clearly and with panache. The White House case, in contrast, began with easily disprovable falsehoods (such as claims that Republicans were barred from closed-door witness hearings) before descending into conspiracy theories, fantasies about absolute power and a curious accusation that Hunter Biden may have once gone on a fishing trip with his own family (the jury is still out on that one).

To be trounced by a legal defence widely seen as laughable (there have even been calls for some of the lawyers involved to be disbarred) will add insult to injury.

The trial also heard that Trump put his Ukraine plot into action the very day after he felt he had been cleared by Mueller – which raises the question of whether he’s making any interesting phone calls from the Oval Office today, one day after being cleared by the Senate. (Has Boris Johnson just been asked to “do us a favour” in return for an attractive post-Brexit trade deal? Perhaps all he’d have to do is smear Elizabeth Warren? Not that most US senators would have a problem with that, apparently.)

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Gotti was finally brought down when his right-hand man, Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, turned state’s evidence and sang like a canary. No such luck for the Democrats: even a late intervention in the Senate impeachment trial by former Trump insider John Bolton wasn’t enough to help them. Even as The Independent’s US teams discussed the prospect of the Senate trial taking a dramatic detour into unexpected territory, Republicans shut down the idea of hearing witnesses.

Instead Democrats will have to pin their hopes on electoral victory in November. While the voting debacle in Iowa this week does not augur well for their campaign, they will be encouraged by the “blue wave” of wins in the 2018 midterms.

The White House is the main target, but with 22 Republican Senate seats up for grabs the same day, compared to 12 Democratic ones, there will be a chance of seizing the upper chamber – a measure of revenge for letting Teflon Don walk free again.

As ever, The Independent will bring you every twist and turn.

Yours,

Phil Thomas

Assistant Editor (US)