Since he started in business in 1973, Donald Trump has sought to discredit the American justice system. He learned how to do it at the feet of the master, the disgraced lawyer Roy Cohn. “He doesn’t see the legal system as a means of obtaining justice for all,” I wrote in my book, “Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Donald Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits.” He sees it rather as a weapon in his arsenal to command attention and ultimately power.

The most effective tools in Trump’s bag of tricks are delay and distraction. He understands that the wheels of justice grind slowly. Today, charged with 91 felony counts in four courts around the country, he has succeeded in grinding justice to a halt.

His most important trial is before Judge Tanya Chutkan in the District of Columbia, arising out of his conspiracy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which matured on January 6, 2021. Things were going swimmingly for the government in that case. Trial was set for March 4, the day before the “Super Tuesday” primaries.

Then Trump moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that he had immunity from criminal prosecution for everything he did in office. Judge Chutkan promptly denied the motion on the principal basis that trying to overturn an election to stay in office featuring fake elector schemes, a violent storming of the Capitol designed to interrupt the electoral count, and threatening his own vice president were not within the scope, not even the penumbra, of presidential duties. Quite the contrary, the president takes an oath to “faithfully execute the laws,” and that would include bowing to the........

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