Posted on 01/06/2025 4:39:53 AM PST by MtnClimber
By now you may have almost forgotten that, back on May 30, Donald Trump was convicted by a New York jury on 34 supposedly felony counts of “falsifying business records.” In the time since, the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has occupied himself with denying various post-trial motions and with postponing the sentencing several times. Yesterday, Acting Justice Merchan issued an Order which, besides denying several of the outstanding motions, also scheduled sentencing for next Friday, January 10 — thus just over a week in advance of President-elect Trump’s second inauguration.
This Order is one of the most bizarre documents I have ever seen to issue from a court. Here you have what on the surface would seem to be one of the most significant, if not the most significant, criminal matters pending in the entire New York court system. It is a prosecution of a former President of the United States, and a man who, when the case was initiated, was known to be a candidate to return to the presidency in the next election. It involved not just one charge, but 34, all of them said to be felonies. (A “felony” is a criminal charge that carries a potential penalty of one year or more in prison.). Convictions were obtained from a jury on all 34 counts.
Enormous resources were devoted to the prosecution of this case. Here is a piece from The New York Times from April 22 with brief bios of the six senior members of the prosecution team. Unlike most Assistant DAs, these were not young people a few years out of law school looking to get some trial experience. Several had more than 20 years’ experience. One (Colangelo) was sent over from the Biden Justice Department to help out. Likely there were at least ten more lawyers in the background doing support work. The cost to the taxpayers of this effort likely ran to well in excess of $10 million, maybe in excess of $20 million. By contrast, a typical felony prosecution has just one Assistant DA assigned to it.
With that background, read this Order all the way through to page 17, and in the last paragraph before the Conclusion we get this:
[A] sentence of an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.
“Unconditional discharge.” That’s it? In other words, no penalty at all. Not just no imprisonment, but no probation, no fine, not even any “conditions” of any kind. (“Conditions” are a frequent component of criminal sentences, and can include things like reporting regularly to probation officers, meeting a curfew, not getting arrested again, and the like.).
But wait a minute. The entire purpose of a criminal prosecution and trial, or at least of legitimate ones, is to establish the basis for imposing penalties of some sort. If the result of the prosecution is unconditional discharge, you don’t need a dozen or more prosecutors and millions of dollars of expenditure and a month-long trial to get that. You can just let the guy go.
It was always obvious to those who looked at the charges that this was not a real prosecution, but rather a completely political effort to knock out the leading opposition candidate for the presidency. But up until now they kept up a pretense that it was real. Now even that pretense is abandoned.
As the Order states, the “sentencing” will create the predicate for Trump to appeal the convictions. The appeal will go first to New York’s Appellate Division, and if Trump is not successful there, to the Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court. I predict that one of those two courts will reverse on grounds that the purported “felonies” were not crimes as a matter of law. If Trump is not successful in either New York appeal, he also has a non-trivial appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, on the ground that the alleged conduct constituting a federal election law violation (that supposedly turned state misdemeanors into felonies in this conviction) was not in fact a crime under federal law.
Even in advance of the appeals, it is now clear that this case has completely fizzled. Trump no longer faces any serious risk from it. If anything, the whole affair helped Trump in his bid for re-election.
The legal reason for disposition is to perfect the felony conviction.....
merchan is outing himself and bragg
the sentence of unconditional discharge
proves this was a political persecution
Beginning on Janurary 20 for a period of 30 days, all federal funds for the city of New York should be with held.
Payments at normal levels can resume on day 31, but the missed payments must not be “made up”
Trump can still appeal his conviction even if Gov. Hochul pardons him.
This charge was created specifically to target President Trump.
That makes this whole thing a bill of attainer.
I was looking at that pesky constitution thingie, and I found this:
No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility.
Things that make you go hmmmmm
I would prefer returning it to the Dutch, since tulips are better than one.
Along with returning Detroit to Ontario. That way I could be visiting Canada were I to go see the Bucs beat the Lions for the NFC championship 🏈
Forget it, Jake. It's New Yawk.
There are a lot of things I don't like about Trump, and was considering leaving the top line blank. But It was the relentless weaponization of the justice system against him that convinced me to vote for him. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only person who feels that way.
They'll be reversed.
“I would give Manhattan back to the Indians”
They got the last laugh, didn’t they. We got ripped off.
The federal government cannot lawfully withhold payments to New York. We’d lose that case in the courts in a heartbeat, and hand them a propaganda victory for no purpose.
Very disappointed with Trumps lawyers, again and again.
Other than being young cute hipsters I think they are pretty worthless. They don't fight they just GOP their way through outrageous, illegal assaults on their client.
Trump has a huge blind spot when picking his defense team. Hope it's better going forward, or he will get no justice/revenge following all the illegal stuff done to him over the past decade.
See VDH's latest for a superb summary.
Maybe VDH should be on his defense team.
However, despite no consequences Trump will be branded a convicted felon. This is the best outcome this corrupt lynch mob can get until the case is thrown out on appeal. The media will then trumpet that a convicted felon will be inaugurated POTUS rending their garments and foaming at the mouth that such a travesty is happening. This will be the last gasp of a years long conspiracy to “get” Trump.
Trump will be branded a convicted felon.
These days, that’s a “Badge of Honor”.
What’s even more ludicrous is that Merchan is insisting he is scheduling the sentencing so that President Trump can appeal, but the judge also claims that if the sentencing is not held immediately then it MUST wait for several years.
Why would the court be unavailable for years? Shouldn’t President Trump be able to reset this date for a few weeks when it is a better time for him?
Of course, the judge doesn’t want this because the ONLY goal is to call him a felon when he is inaugurated.
The emperor (Biden) has no clothes (brains), and this judge has no case. Totally manufactured. He, the DA, and the whole prosecuting team need to be disbarred and go to prison.
Can’t Trump just turn it over to his lawyers to get it appealed and the charges thrown out? And would it be possible for him to recover the financial costs somehow?
The criminal merchan and his criminal daughter need to be arrested and imprisoned.
Not a heart beat. The case can drag on for a very long time. Losing is winning
The choice of Electors by a State Legislature is not a Federal election.
In a just world, a country with laws, this would be like a 20lb sledge hammer coming down on all the players.
One can only hope there is a glimmer of justice left.
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