How Judge Merchan Is Orchestrating Trump’s Conviction

The former president is not charged with a conspiracy to steal the 2016 election — but the jury might think he is.

If former president Donald Trump seems even more cantankerous in his Manhattan courthouse press conferences than in those he has held at other Democratic lawfare venues, it is undoubtedly because of his unique insight into what is being done to him there. As a young mogul, Trump learned hardball litigation at the feet of Roy Cohn, a rogue master of the game. Cohn’s No. 1 rule was: “Don’t tell...