LOS ANGELES.–Refusing to toss out 78-year-old President Donald Trump’s May 30 hush money conviction on 34 felonies, 62-year-old Judge Juan Merchan said the Supreme Court’s July 1 immunity ruling didn’t apply to Trump’s hush money case. Whether that’s true of not will be tested again whether Trump wins his appeal or eventually goes to the Supreme Court for final relief. Trump’s lawyers think there was serious, reversible jury misconduct in the case not to mention that Judge Merchan didn’t follow the Supreme Court guidelines that Trump enjoyed presidential immunity. “The deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court,” Trump wrote on Trump Social. “This illegitimate case in nothing but a rigged hoax,” Trump said, pushing Merchan to dig in.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr., 51, ran a campaign in 2021 promising to prosecute Trump for the hush money case where he paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep her from going public with her 2006 alleged one-night stand with Trump. Bragg was told by his predecessor Cyrus Vance Jr. that that there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a case against Trump. But Bragg, during his 2021 campaign for DA, was swept up with all the Democrat fury about the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that all blamed Trump. So, Bragg took the unusual move to campaign on a promised to go after Trump if he won the Manhattan DA’s race. So after he won in 2021, he went ahead with plans to charge Trump with 34 felonies, actually upgrading ordinary bookkeeping misdemeanors to Class 5 felonies to make the case look far more dramatic against Trump.
Changing an ordinary misdemeanor bookkeeping charge to a Class 5 felonies is reason enough to have the case tossed but Bragg boasted during his campaign about taking on Trump, highly inappropriate for a public servant. “If allowed to stand, would be the end of the presidency as we know it,” Trump said, referring the July 1 Supreme Court immunity ruling. But apart from the immunity ruling, it’s highly irregular for a prosecutor to upgrade charges from misdemeanors to felonies because of the person being charged. Merchan ruled Dec. 16 that the ruling should stand because it wasn’t related to the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Bragg asked Merchan to either delay sentencing to after Trump leaves office [2029] or sentence him to no jail time since he had no criminal record. Whatever legal challenges, Merchan is on shaky legal ground on appeal or in the Supreme Court.
When you consider that Bragg’s case against Trump was one of many attempts by Democrat prosecutors to go after Trump with the intent of undermining his future bid for president, it’s obvious political motivation. Democrats decided their best strategy to prevent Trump from running for president was to charge him with multiple crimes, hoping that at least one would get a conviction, preventing him from running for president. Well, Bragg got his conviction May 30, but voters rejected the various charges against Trump as politically motivated. Democrats and the press hoped that all the various charges would discourage voters from voting for what Democrats called a “convicted felon.” Voters didn’t buy the government’s cases against Trump, certainly not Bragg’s case that convicted Trump of 34 felonies. Voters saw all the case as politically motivated.
When Trump talks of “retribution,” he refers to the public getting to fight back against a corrupt criminal justice system that used fake probable cause to press criminal charges. If government agencies like Manhattan’s DA or the State’s Attorney General used their office to prosecute Trump for the purpose of stopping his 2024 presidential campaign, then what’s left of the criminal justice system? Trump wants 59-year-old incoming Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to review the Department of Justice and FBI’s cases against Trump over the last nine years. Former FBI Director James Comey, 63, investigated Trump in 2016 for Russian collusion all based on former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s bogus Steele Dossier that said Trump colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. Comey had no probable cause other than Hillary’s fake Steele Dossier.
Merchan’s Manhattan case is the only conviction against Trump or the only case ever expected to reach trial and a conviction, other than New York Atty. Gen. Letitia’s James state case fining Trump $450 million for appraisal discrepancies. Democrats have only Bragg’s case to call Trump a convicted felon, but, other than the Democrat base, voters didn’t care about Bragg’s May 30 conviction. Merchan is expected to rule soon on either postponing Trump’s sentencing or sentencing him to no jail time. Whatever Merchan does, Trump has an appeal pending and will no doubt, if needed, take it to the Supreme Court. Democrats and press can’t let go of their only victory against Trump that did nothing to change the Nov. 5 vote, in fact, might have helped Trump. Merchan looks to kick the can down the road until Trump leaves office, unless the case is tossed out.
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.