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The charges in Manhattan have restored Donald Trump to his favourite role
曼哈顿指控复原了特朗普最爱扮演的角色
“I bring out the worst in my enemies,” Roy Cohn, a ferocious red- and gay-baiting lawyer, once told William Safire, a conservative columnist, “and that’s how I get them to defeat themselves.”
“我把敌人最坏的一面展现出来，”一个凶狠且给人扣“红帽子”的同性恋律师罗伊·科恩曾对保守派专栏作家威廉·萨菲尔说，“这就是我让他们自我毁灭的方式。”
Donald Trump, for years Mr Cohn’s client and ardent pupil, has outdone his mentor: Mr Trump brings out the worst in everyone—enemy, ally and onlooker alike.
特朗普多年来一直是科恩的客户和热情的学生，他的表现最终超过了科恩：特朗普让每个人展现了最糟糕的一面——无论是敌人、盟友还是旁观者。
How else to explain the ecstasy of news-media speculation and vamping as Mr Trump’s arraignment approached on April 4th, the historic and unprecedented use of the words “historic” and “unprecedented”, the online tracker CNN created so that panting viewers could follow along as Mr Trump’s plane delivered him from Florida to New York City?
除此之外怎么解释4月4日特朗普的传讯临近时，新闻媒体开始疯狂猜测并且大肆渲染？美国有线新闻网为了气喘吁吁的观众，在特朗普乘坐专机从佛罗里达飞往纽约的过程中跟踪报道，史无前例地使用了“历史性的”和“史无前例的”这两个词。
And how else to explain the indictment itself?
还能怎么解释起诉书本身呢?
Democrats and their sympathetic commentators had been predicting that when the charges were unsealed, they would prove far darker than the familiar accusations that Mr Trump orchestrated a scheme in 2016 to pay hush money to smother embarrassing revelations and enhance his chance at the presidency.
民主党人和同情他们的评论人士一直预测，当指控被披露时，它们将比人们熟悉的指控要黑暗得多，即特朗普在2016年策划了一项计划，支付封口费，以掩盖丑事败露，并增加他担任总统的机率。
They said the indictment would show that Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, was not relying on an unusual gambit to bootstrap what are misdemeanours under state law—falsifying business records—into felonies by linking them to violations of campaign-finance law.
他们说，起诉书将表明，曼哈顿地区检察官阿尔文·布拉格并没有采取非常手段，将伪造商业记录与违反竞选筹款法联系起来，从而将州法律规定的轻罪推为重罪。
They predicted that Mr Bragg would not be counting heavily on the testimony of Mr Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, whose integrity might not impress a jury since he has already pleaded guilty in the scheme and to lying to Congress.
他们预测，布拉格不会过多依赖特朗普前律师迈克尔科恩的证词，后者的正直可能不会打动陪审团，因为特朗普已经承认设计骗局，承认向国会撒谎。
Yet in the end the surprise was that the indictment held none.
然而，最后令人惊讶的是，起诉书中没有任何证据。
Of course, as Mr Bragg’s defenders say, no American should be above the law.
当然，正如布拉格先生的捍卫者所说，任何美国人都不应该凌驾于法律之上。
No principle of good governance could immunise former presidents from being prosecuted for committing crimes.
任何善政原则都不能使前总统免受犯罪的起诉。
There is also rough justice in Mr Trump, who has so often called for opponents to be jailed, finding himself in the dock.
特朗普身上还有一种粗暴的正义，他经常呼吁将反对者投入监狱，结果却发现自己在被告席。
But in choosing to charge this former president with these crimes, Mr Bragg has done less to vindicate the rule of law than to put it at risk.
但选择以这些罪行起诉这位前总统，与其说布拉格是在维护法治，不如说是将法治置于危险之中。
He has smoothed Mr Trump’s path back to the Republican nomination and thus to the White House.
他为特朗普重返共和党提名、进而入主白宫铺平了道路。
Not long ago, Mr Trump seemed to be waning as a political force.
不久前，特朗普的政治力量似乎正在减弱。
Even some of his supporters worried that, as he whined about the 2020 election and his brace of impeachments, he came across as obsessively pursuing stale personal grievances rather than championing Americans’ concerns.
就连他的一些支持者也担心，当他抱怨2020年的选举和一连串弹劾时，他给人的印象是，痴迷于追求陈腐的个人不满，而不是维护美国人关心的事。
Fox News had turned its cameras away from him and trained them on a seemingly formidable, likely challenger, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida.
福克斯新闻将镜头从他身上移开，对准了一个看似强大、可能成功的挑战者——佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯。
