‘American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial—And My Own’
By Jonathan Alter
BenBella Books, 256 pages

Journalist and biographer Jonathan Alter spent 23 days in a Manhattan court room observing Donald Trump on trial in a case that led to his conviction on 34 felony counts. Mr. Alter kept a diary of reactions to the prosecution and defense teams, the demeanor of the judge, the jury, and, of course, the former and future president.

Mr. Alter invests his narrative with amusing stories about his upbringing at Chicago, and his family’s connections with the Democratic Party. His mother was against the Daley machine, until the mayor one day offered her a job, pointing out she was always saying more women should be in political office. So, she joined his administration. Mr. Alter also tells a few political jokes — like the one about the woman who told Adlai Stevenson that every thinking person in America was for him. “That’s nice,” he said. “Unfortunately, I need a majority.”

Mr. Alter is forthright about his opposition to Trump and even considers whether he is prone to “confirmation bias,” the selection of only the evidence that supports his belief in Trump’s guilt. How Trump looks really is in the eye of the beholder — in this case assisted by a pair of binoculars because closeups are otherwise difficult, given the odd angles of the courtroom that made proximity to the defendant difficult to secure.

Whatever assessment is made of Mr. Alter’s reporting and opinions, his valuable book recounts both the strengths and weaknesses of the case against Trump that charged him with concealing from the American people the payoff of a porn star, Stormy Daniels, and thus purportedly influencing the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.

Mr. Alter breaks down testimony, reports the judge’s rulings, and scrutinizes an expressionless jury that seems intent on not giving journalists any idea of what they make of the case. The verdict is in doubt. 

The most important witness against Trump, Michael Cohen, gets a real drubbing, not merely from defense lawyers but from Mr. Alter, who emphasizes just how unreliable and petty Cohen can be. If the prosecution did not also have a paper trail to buttress Cohen’s accusations, it is hard to see how the case could even have been brought to court.

Mr. Alter portrays Stormy Daniels as a spectacular witness, witty and self-possessed but also inclined to say more than was necessary or pertinent to the prosecution’s case.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche did Trump little good, in Mr. Alter’s estimation. Mr. Blanche was histrionic and verbose. Prosecutors also tended to go on too long, but in general eschewed the kind of Perry Mason moments Mr. Blanche attempted while attacking Cohen’s credibility.

Mr. Alter deals with the accusation that the felony trial was merely a political setup to damage Trump and makes the valid point that virtually any trial involving a politician can seem political just because the defendant is a politician. 

Yet put such arguments aside and appreciate that the verdict, to those in the courtroom, was by no means certain. Mr. Alter has his eye on one juror who looks like he might be a holdout that would result in a hung jury, but the reporter is far from certain and does not engage in the confirmation bias he brought up earlier. 

As Mr. Alter watches the jury members file in, he does not seem at all confident that Trump will be found guilty. Mr. Alter believes the evidence is strong, but he has pointed out weak points in the prosecution’s presentation, and he is still unable to read anything in the jurors’ behavior.

Mr. Alter has an epilogue in which he dilates on what the trial may mean.  He is not at all certain of its importance to the American electorate. He understands the force of contingency in American politics and that no trial, however historic, is necessarily dispositive. 

“American Reckoning,” as its subtitle suggests, is about more than a trial, as Mr. Alter reflects on his decades of reporting, his family history, and the future of the country, which he wisely leaves open ended and in as much suspense as he creates in the book itself.

Mr. Rollyson’s work in progress is “Making the American Presidency: How Biographers Shape History.”