Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate for President, is the first US President to be convicted of a felony. (He was also found liable ofdefaming a woman he had sexually assaulted but that was a civil judgment, not criminal.His businesses were also convicted of business fraud last year.)

This conviction doesn’t prevent him from running for president—or even serving as president. His legal team is certain to appeal the judgment, so it’s unlikely that this will be settled before the election. There are three other criminal cases pending in Georgia, Florida, and Washington, DC that are also unlikely to conclude before the election.

Many of his supporters see this as politically motivated and say this won’t impact how they vote in November. Yet, lawsuits are not new to Trump and his businesses. From the 1970s till his election in 2016, Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4000 lawsuits in federal and state courts, including defamation and business tax disputes.

Could all those lawsuits and judgments be in error? Many o fthem came decades before his political career started. Or, might there be a reason this pattern persists?

To quote Maya Angelou, if someone tells you who they are, believe them.