Follow this authorEugene Robinson's opinions

Trump is wrong, of course, when he claims that all his legal woes are nothing but “election interference” meant to damage his prospects against President Biden in November. Anyone who’s paid attention to Trump’s political trajectory should seriously doubt that even multiple convictions, on the most serious charges, would have much impact one way or the other. The word “shame” has no meaning in the Trump political universe.

Trump is right, however, when he says we have a “rigged” and “two-tiered” justice system. But it’s rigged in favor of people like him. Defendants who are rich, famous and powerful get to fly first-class.

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Recall how we got here: Some legal analysts bemoan the fact that this New York case — stemming from a hush money payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, allegedly disguised in an illegal manner — is the first to go to trial. The allegations are hardly trivial: Trump’s actions squelched embarrassing information that might have impacted the outcome of his race against Hillary Clinton. In language Trump would understand, that could be called “election interference.”

Yes, the charges in the other cases involve weightier matters of state: the role Trump played in plotting to overthrow the 2020 election and inspiring the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection; the role he played in trying to reverse the election result in the state of Georgia specifically; and his alleged unlawful hoarding of highly sensitive classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, including in a chandeliered bathroom.

But why are those trials delayed? Because Trump took advantage of our two-tiered justice system to slow them down.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland bears some responsibility in the Jan. 6 case as he waited far too long to even begin an investigation of Trump’s possible culpability. Granted, no Justice Department had ever put a former president on trial. But no president had ever allegedly conspired to cling to power by overturning or blocking certification of an election he had lost.

Once charges against Trump were finally brought, though, Trump had the money to hire phalanxes of lawyers who filed motion after motion to........

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