With the New York criminal trial of Donald Trump now in its fourth week, the defense is running out of options. Unless the jury decides that the crimes Trump is facing should not be crimes, or at least not actions that should render a former president a felon, he will likely be convicted.

Trump is charged with 34 counts of felony falsification of business records to conceal a payoff to Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump to the voting public during the 2016 election. Trump’s former aide Michael Cohen is testifying this week. Through him, the prosecution has introduced documentation demonstrating that Cohen made the $130,000 payment though a shell corporation he set up by lying to a Manhattan bank about its purpose.

Cohen testified that he dug into his own pocket to fund the payment, taking out a home equity line of credit on his personal residence when his billionaire boss dragged his feet. Cohen later pleaded guilty to federal charges of making an illegal campaign contribution and went to prison. Written records further show that, in coordination with the Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg (who is doing time for perjury), Cohen was reimbursed $420,000 to cover the taxes he’d have to pay by falsely recording the money as income for legal fees, as well as a bonus. Cohen was ultimately repaid through a series of $35,000 checks, some of which came from Trump’s personal account and were signed by Trump from the Oval Office. The jury has seen these records, too.

The evidence is vast, detailed and mostly of interest only to diligent court-watchers. For everyone else, it’s........

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