This verdict will affect more than Trump

The first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is over with a guilty verdict from a Manhattan jury.

The case has been remarkable in many ways. Not the least of these is the fact that the verdict is almost entirely irrelevant. Donald Trump will have to spend more money to overturn the verdict on appeal, and there will be a great deal said about how Secret Service agents are going to be accommodated at Rikers Island in the unlikely event that Justice Juan Merchan imposes jail time on a first-time record-keeping violator.