For Those Wondering About The Trump Sentencing

Jonathan Turley summarizes it in three tweets. Basically, what he’s saying is that this is a NY prog judge flipping off everyone in America who’s not like he is—including fair minded libs:

Jonathan Turley @JonathanTurley

The Hill is out with my column on the scheduled sentencing of Trump by Judge Merchan in Manhattan. At 9:30 a.m. on Jan. 10, 2025, the curtain will fall on the longest off-Broadway performance of “Hamlet” in history.

This was to be the orange-jump-suit moment many longed for over years of unrequited lawfare. They will likely be disappointed. The sentence will likely be an unconditional discharge or a sentence without jail time...

However, there is still a trophy to go with this trophy-kill case. The sentence will formally label the president-elect a convicted felon. It will be punishment by soundbite. It will allow a media mantra that Trump is the first convicted felon to be sworn into office.

Again, the idea is this—and Turley explains it in his article: The judge deliberately delayed sentencing until days before the inauguration, because Trump can’t appeal until the verdict is final. Sentencing makes it final. Then Turley goes on to explain why there will be an appeal, which will not simply be pro forma:

The sentencing, however, will have another impact. Trump will finally be able to appeal this horrendous case. It has always been a target-rich opportunity for appeal, but Trump could no[t] launch a comprehensive appeal until after he was sentenced.

Those appellate issues include charges based on a novel criminal theory through which New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg not only zapped a dead misdemeanor into life (after the expiration of the statute of limitation) but based a state charge on federal election law and federal taxation violations. So, after the Justice Department declined to prosecute federal violations, Bragg effectively did so in state court with Merchan’s blessing.

The issues also include Merchan’s absurd instructions to the jury. The novel theory demanded a secondary offense, the crime that Trump was seeking to conceal by listing payments as legal expenses. Merchan allowed the jury to find that the secondary offense was any of an array of vaguely defined options. Even on the jury form, they did not have to specify which crimes were found. Merchan did not require even a majority, let alone a unanimous jury, to agree on what actually occurred.

Under Merchan’s instruction, the jury could have split four-four-four on whether this was all done to conceal a federal election violation, falsification of business records or taxation violations. Neither Trump nor the public will ever know.

Even CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig denounced the case as legally flawed and unprecedented. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) recently put it more simply and called the case total “b—s–t.”

While expectations are not great for the New York legal system itself, this case will eventually go to the United States Supreme Court.

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When the sentence is imposed on Jan. 10, it is likely to feel comically downsized given the effort. After years and millions spent in the various Trump cases, Trump will likely receive an unconditional discharge and sent along his way . . . to the White House.

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In the meantime, the 2024 election proved to be the largest verdict in history after years of lawfare and biased media reporting came to nothing. …

There’s quite a bit more in Turley’s article, so follow the link if the degradation of our once proud claim to be a nation under the rule of law interests you.