We're Ignoring Trump's Defense.

Donnie Trump has been unwavering in his insistence that he did nothing wrong.  We're treating him as if he never said that, or as if he somehow shouldn't be believed.

And we're believing instead people like Michael Cohen, who admitted in the past having lied, and were punished for it.  Clearly, we don't believe in rehabilitation, either, because we still disqualify Cohen as a liar, so Cohen should have received a life sentence.

Donnie has given us explanations, and we have simply chosen not to believe them.  Some are thin, and some seem preposterous, at least to the skeptical ear, but they're his explanations.  And our failure to take him at his very consistent, frustrated, angry word might contain a lesson for all of us.

Many years ago, I worked for a couple of years in a prison in Massachusetts.  I was the prescribing psychiatrist, and my job was to evaluate and treat inmates who had psychiatric complaints.  Part of my evaluation, in getting to know the inmates, was to ask them why they were incarcerated.  As it turned out, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and its criminal justice system, were so grossly dysfunctional that not one inmate was guilty of the crime of which he was accused and for which he was tried, convicted, and incarcerated.  Not one.  Knew nothing about it.  Happened to be in someone else's car while that person was holding up a 7/11, shockingly and totally unbeknownst to the inmate.  Just didn't do it.  Or whatever.

And I had a very interesting conversation with a therapist at that prison once.  One inmate said he was arrested, and his probation revoked, because his ex-girlfriend, who had a restraining order against him, called the police, said someone called her phone, said she recognized the breathing of her ex-boyfriend, and that was enough for police to arrest and incarcerate him.  I was naive, and thought this was a ridiculous story, but the therapist said that the level of sensitivity about things like domestic abuse or threats was in fact very high in Massachusetts, and it was entirely possible that the story happened exactly as the inmate reported it.

So I'm thinking we shouldn't be so quick to find Donnie guilty when he says he definitely isn't.  Stephen King, who is not a fan of Donnie's, made the old crack about "denial [not being] just a river in Egypt."  But maybe it is.  Maybe it's a very genuine, heartfelt, and frankly correct response to a false accusation.

So I'm further thinking that we should adopt this theory for everyone who is accused of anything.  If they say they didn't do it, then they didn't do it.  And we can empty the prisons, commute sentences, and dismiss convictions of every person in America who was convicted and incarcerated and says they didn't do it.  We don't even need District Attorneys, court systems, and judges.  We can just ask people if they did anything illegal, and if they say they didn't, the "case [is] closed."  We'll save ourselves a lot of time, trouble, and money, and stop compromising and wrongly punishing people who promise us they didn't do anything wrong.