If they were to try it would the Federal courts step in? The New York State courts certainly wouldn’t...they’re all *thoroughly* corrupt.
“If they were to try it would the Federal courts step in? The New York State courts certainly wouldn’t...they’re all *thoroughly* corrupt.”
The are legal avenues for the federal courts to step in, but many of the judges in the Southern District of New York are as liberal as Merchan, just a lot smarter.
In my opinion, we should hope that Merchan sentences DJT to prison or home confinement because that would allow him to directly petition the SCOTUS for a writ of habeas corpus without having to first seek relief in the state or federal lower courts or intermediate appellate courts.
In order to apply for a writ of habeas corpus, the applicant must be “in custody” (which is why a custodial sentence may be a good thing) and allege that the detention is unlawful under federal law or the U.S. Constitution.
Although the SCOTUS has the inherent and statutory authority to grant writs of habeas corpus without requiring the applicant to first seek such relief in the lower courts, it has historically refrained from exercising such authority, except in the most compelling of circumstances. And, I can’t think of a more compelling reason for the SCOTUS to grant such a writ when the applicant is a former POTUS in the midst of a campaign for the presidency.
Indeed, the SCOTUS ruled on June 21, 2024, in Erlinger vs United States, that The Fifth and Sixth Amendments require a unanimous jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that a defendant’s past offenses were committed on separate occasions for purposes of enhanced sentencing. Whether by coincidence or by design, the Court’s holding in Erlinger is obviously applicable and easily extended the Merchan/Trump case in that Merchan did not require an unanimous jury verdict, based upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt, as to any of the three underlying crimes that Bragg used to elevate a simple misdemeanor into a felony.