LOS ANGELES.–Former President Donald Trump’s, 77, hush money trial began today in Judge Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom with jury selection, with the New York Times and other liberal broadcast and print outlets rooting for the criminal justice system to convict Trump. How ironic that after seven years since Trump was elected president, 50-year-old Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg makes good on his promise to prosecute Trump, something his predecessor former DA Cyrus Vance Jr. decided against since he left office Dec. 31, 2021. Vance said, after reviewing legal precedents and Trump’s case, there was insufficient evidence to proceed, yet during an Election Year with Trump running for president in 2024, Bragg found ample grounds for charging Trump April 4, 2023 with 34 felonies related to paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels AKA Susan Clifford.
At the heart of Bragg’s case is reviewing Trump’s bookkeeping that charged $130,000 in legal fees for a one-time payment by Trump’s disbarred, disgraced, convicted felon former attorney Michael Cohen, now serving as Bragg’s star witness. Bragg deviated from the DA’s usual guidelines charging Trump with 34 felonies related to the $130,000 payment to Stormy in 2016, rather than usual-and-customary misdemeanors for bookkeeping errors. Bragg’s case against Trump is the first of four cases to go to trial, including an Atlanta racketeering case for election fraud, Washington D.C. case for illegally trying to stay in power, and a Miami case involving harboring classified documents. “You are about to participate in a trial by jury. The system of that by jury is one of the cornerstones of our judicial system,” Judge Juan Merchan lectured prospective jurors.
How ironic that Merchan lectures potential jurors about the bedrock of the U.S. criminal justice system, when Trump has previously been accused by the Department of Justice and FBI for colluding with the Russian Federation to win the 2016 presidential election. Former FBI Director James Comey, 63, opened up a counterintelligence investigation of Trump in 2016 on the recommendation of former Obama CIA Director John Brennan who was given 76-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fake Steele Dossier, accusing Trump of Russian collusion. Comey used Hillary’s fake dossier to open up a counterintelligence investigation, eventually leading, after Comey was fired by Trump May 8, 2027, to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller for a 22-month, $40 million investigation trying to prove Trump colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 presidential election.
Judge Merchan lectures jurors about the foundation of the criminal justice system, yet he never once asked about the DOJ and FBI illegal investigation of Trump and his 2016 campaign. All the fake news media, broadcast and print, led by the New York Times again, accuses Trump of violating campaign finance laws, paying off Stormy Daniels. New York Times Maggie Habberman wrote umpteen stories about Trump alleged ties to the Kremlin, all based on Hillary’s fake dossier, yet never retracted, modified or apologized for one story. Now Habberman is at it again, this time writing away about Trump’s alleged guilt for his payment to Stormy Daniels, racketeering in Georgia, election interference in D.C. and retaining classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Merhan now talks about appropriate decorum in his courtroom picking jurors for Trump’s trial.
Merchan knows it’s impossible to pick unbiased jurors because of prodigious coverage in the fake news, all trying-and-convicting Trump over the last year since Bragg charged Trump April 4, 2023 with 34 felonies. “The name of the case is the People of the State of New York vs. Donald Trump,” Merchan told the jurors. He said nothing about the government fake case against Trump that went on for years about Russian collusion. Every Democrat partisan member of Congress swore on their life that Trump colluded with Russia. Democrats in Congress and the Democrat-controlled press were devastated March 22, 2019 when Mueller released his final report clearing Trump of any wrongdoing. Now Merchan presides over an equally bogus case, knowing that there’s legal precedent that Trump violated no campaign laws when his former Atty. Michael Cohen paid off Stormy Daniels.
Picking an unbiased jury won’t be easy, especially in New York City, where Trump doesn’t have too many fans. Judge Merchan wrote the key is “whether the prospective jurors can assure us that they will set aside any personal feelings or biases and render a decision that is based on the evidence and the law,” showing how he’ll lower the bar to get the needed 12 jurors and six alternates. Merchan has no problems issuing Trump a gag order, compromising his free speech rights, but saying nothing to the 24/7 anti-Trump press that’s presented his hush money case with pundits and experts for nearly a year on national TV. Merchan has no problem with his case discussed on every liberal talk show in the country. He just doesn’t want to hear Trump talk about Bragg’s star witness disbarred, disgraced former Atty. Michael Cohen or adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump denies every having an affair.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
