So the judge on Trump's New York trial and conviction on 34 counts of inaccurate record keeping has passed sentence on DJT. Trump is sentenced to exactly nothing, no incarceration, no fine, only the unlovely title of "convicted felon." Trump is out his undoubtedly significant legal fees.
Another way to think about this is that in early November the American people served as a gigantic "appellate jury." Disagreeing with the New York jury, we found Trump not guilty and reelected him President by a 312 to 226 margin.
At the same time we also rendered a 'verdict' on the abuse of the legal system that has come to be known as "lawfare," a portmanteau of the words "law" and "warfare." The people abusing the system in this way are no better than what passes for politicians in a banana republic somewhere in the third world.
Paradoxically, bringing lawfare out in the open with no apologies makes the decent of our country into autocracy more likely. We have become more like Russia, Venezuela, or any number of African countries where leaders hang onto power by illegal means because the only way to die a free person is to die in office or in exile.
Putin finds himself in this position now, and his choices for exile aren't great. It will be surprising if Trump can resist the impulse to try Biden for corruption, influence peddling, representing a foreign government without registering, and lying about it. All of which Biden did.
