Yet no matter how theatrical or even misguided Ellis is, to spend a day in his courtroom is to be reminded of a different, pre-Trump era in our civic life—in a good way. An era when basic facts were not subject to endless distortion and truth still mattered. When the President himself could not intrude on the proceedings with his endless, self-serving, and utterly misleading Twitter spin.
Electronics are, mercifully, if inconveniently, banned from the Alexandria federal courthouse, meaning that it may be one of the most Trump-free spaces on the planet at the moment. Instead of staring down at their phones and laptops, the journalists and other spectators are forced to actually listen as the case unfolds, without a constant stream of instant commentary to shape their thinking. (“I tell everyone it’s like living in 1994,” one of the reporters on the Manafort beat told me.) The self-contained Ellis courtroom is that rare place today where there is presumed to be a truth that is real and verifiable. A place where the facts are worth so much to the public that the U.S. government had a forensic accountant meticulously match the flow of money from Manafort’s overseas bank accounts to his invoices from luxury-car dealers, couturiers, decorators, and the like. I found the testimony of the accountant, in its own way, just as compelling as Gates’s rendition of his life as the henchman of an international high-roller. Forget “alternative facts.” Here are actual ones. And, yes, they are damning.
But of course we still live in Trump’s world. On Thursday morning, the President interrupted his extended New Jersey golf vacation to tweet. The subject on his mind, as usual, was the Mueller investigation. He complained about the “illegally brought Rigged Witch Hunt run by people who are totally corrupt and/or conflicted.” Reading it, I wished I was still in Judge Ellis’s courtroom, listening to testimony about actual corruption. By those with whom Donald Trump chose to surround himself. Who cares if the judge is a jerk.
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