Don't Fall For Merchan's Trap
By delaying Donald Trump's sentencing until ten days before the inauguration, Judge Juan Merchan is openly displaying the political nature of the prosecution and trial.
Judge Juan Merchan's obsession with landing his white whale, Donald Trump, revealed itself this week in all its political dis-glory. People v. Trump was the only one of the four lawfare cases brought by Democratic prosecutors to reach a conviction. While Merchan has declared that he will impose a sentence of "unconditional discharge," which means no "imprisonment, fine, or probation supervision," he remains determined to make Trump the first felon to become President.
Even if he had tried, Trump could not have scripted a more revealing political act by Merchan, and, by extension, Alvin Bragg, the elected Manhattan district attorney, and the State of New York. A truly neutral judge committed to following the law would have overturned—if not dismissed altogether—the May 2024 conviction. But just as the 2024 prosecutions backfired by creating a rally-around-the-flag effect for Trump in the Republican primaries, the future President could again pull political judo that could allow him to turn lawfare against its Democratic practitioners.
By delaying sentencing until ten days before the inauguration, Merchan is openly displaying the political nature of the prosecution and trial. The judge is effectively short-circuiting Trump's ability to appeal to higher courts to enjoin an official conviction.
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