I can’t say that I was ever a fan of O.J. Simpson. He had played his college ball at Southern Cal, while my grandfather was a professor at their rival UCLA. He spent his professional career with two teams–the Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers–that were barely on my radar. In any case, his last good season had been in 1976 when he ran for over 1,500 years in 14 games. At the time, I was only seven years old.

I can say, however, that at the time he was accused of committing a double-homicide I had a fairly positive opinion of him as a person. I knew him from the Hertz Rental Car commercials and Monday Night Football. He’d even starred in a movie–Capricorn One–directed by Peter Hyams, the father of a friend of mine.

I remember learning of the accusation against Simpson while I was in the bathtub and my girlfriend called in from the other room to say his wife had been murdered and he was a suspect. My immediate reaction was to dismiss this out-of-hand. The person I thought I knew wasn’t capable of such an act.

But I listened to the evidence and I observed his behavior, and I soon had no doubt that he was guilty. My prior opinion of him was wiped away. I was angry when he was acquitted and relieved when he later lost a federal civil case. I will admit, however, that I had to endure a feeling of shame that I’d ever admired the man. It made me feel stupid and inadequate to realize I’d been such a poor judge of character.

I thought of this when I read in The Hill that Senate Republicans “believe that even if [Donald Trump is] indicted, it won’t diminish him as a political force in 2022 and beyond.”

First, like Simpson, Trump has diehard fans that don’t want to believe the worst about him. Second, just as racial politics and the history of corruption and racism within the Los Angeles police department made it hard to get a conviction of Simpson, racial politics and a narrative about a Deep State out to get Trump will make it hard to secure a conviction against the former president.

But no one can seriously argue that Simpson emerged from his legal ordeals undiminished. Countless people changed their opinion of him from positive to negative. Whatever emotions the name “O.J. Simpson” had evoked before his arrest were completely replaced by new emotions, irrespective of whether you supported him or not.

It’s also arguable that Simpson’s image was more tarnished by his defiant acquittal than it would have been by a contrite conviction. But it’s not the outcome of a trial that concerns me here. Simply being on trial while the world hears the evidence against him will be sufficient to universally change how Trump is perceived by friend and foe alike.

It’s true that the details will matter. The specific charges, the strength of the evidence, and the behavior of the prosecutors, judge and defense team all mattered in the Simpson trial, and they’d matter in a Trump trial, too. But this will speak more to the intensity of feeling on both sides than to the transformative effect on how people view Trump. The stronger the case, the less value an acquittal will bring. The more political and vindictive the case seems, the less value a conviction will bring. But, there’s almost no scenario other than a completely botched prosecution than will leave Trump undiminished.

Of course, Republican senators care most about how a trial will impact them personally, and they’re saying it won’t give them much cover to separate from Trump. All I can say to that is that it will give them more cover than anything else would, so they should welcome a trial. They should especially welcome a conviction, preferably built on a rock-solid case.

To get full advantage of that scenario, however, they want to do a little advance separation. Failure to do so will reflect badly on them, as they’ll look like poor judges of character. I know how that feels. It’s not a good feeling, but it’s better than taking the side of a murderer.