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Facebook Post Sparks Debate Over Possible Mistrial in Trump Case
American Greatness ^ | June 9, 2024 | Roger Kimball

Posted on 06/09/2024 1:43:29 PM PDT by george76

The house always wins. That’s what matters—fairness, impartiality, the very idea of a non-partisan application of the law be damned. Welcome to the end of the republic.

I think that it was the great Miranda Devine, she of the “laptop from hell” fame, who first called the world’s attention to the latest wrinkle in the long-running “Get Trump” extravaganza in New York. Anyway, I first heard about it from her post on X Friday. “If this is legit,” she wrote, commenting on a letter purportedly from Acting Justice Juan Merchan to Donald Trump’s Counsel and the Manhattan DA’s office, “it should wipe out Trump’s conviction.”

Eh, what?

At issue was someone who (again, purportedly) posted on the Court’s public Facebook page a message from one “Michael Anderson,” a self-described “professional shitposter,” who claimed to have inside information that Trump was about to be convicted. “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted. Thank you folks for all your hard work!” The comment, Merchan wrote, was posted on May 29, a day before Trump’s guilty verdict rolled off the tongues of Merchan’s jury.

For a brief moment, the internet was ablaze with speculative comment, elated or anguished depending on the ideological coloration of the poster. If it turned out that a juror had disobeyed his orders and spilled the beans about the verdict to someone who then posted the bulletin on Facebook, would that constitute grounds for a mistrial? After all, “prejudice to the defendant” is one of the stipulated grounds for a mistrial. CPL § 280.10 of the statute says, in part, that “the court must declare a mistrial” “upon motion of the defendant, when there occurs during the trial an error or legal defect in the proceedings, or conduct inside or outside the courtroom, which is prejudicial to the defendant and deprives him of a fair trial.”

Is that what we have here? It’s hard to say. The original Facebook post was removed. As far as I know, the juror in question has not been identified—and that’s assuming that a juror did inform “Michael Anderson” of the verdict. Did the post result in “substantial and irreparable prejudice to the defendant’s case?”

And leaving that question to one side, who would it be who would declare the mistrial even if such prejudice were irrefragable? Why, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, Acting Justice, New York Supreme Court, that’s who. Has there ever, outside the annals of Tammany Hall, been in American history a more conflicted jurist than Merchan? He is certainly up towards the top of that rogues’ gallery.

If you’re a judge, you are forbidden from making political contributions. But Merchan, who was “randomly selected” to preside over three Trump-related cases, has made contributions to several Democrat causes and politicians, including Joe Biden. The contributions are all small. But as Andy McCarthy pointed out, you don’t make small-dollar contributions to affect an election. You do it to show that “you’re on the team.”

If you are a judge, you are supposed to take special care to avoid conflicts of interest and even the “appearance of impropriety.” But Merchan’s daughter Loren, president of the Chicago-based progressive consulting firm “Authentic Campaigns,” has raised millions for such Democratic figures as Adam Schiff, who took the lead in bringing articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. Rep. Elise Stefanik brought an ethics complaint against Merchan but that, predictably, has gone exactly nowhere.

Why do I say “predictably?” Because in Democratic redoubts such as New York and Washington, D.C., the fix is always in. They are, as a friend pointed out to me, run like casinos. In the long run, the house always wins. The whole-of-government judicial assault against Donald Trump has abrogated several of his Constitutional rights, not least those outlined in the Sixth Amendment. “In all criminal proceedings,” that brief Amendment reads, in part, “the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State . . . and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor.” But Judge Merchan declined to tell Trump (or the jury) exactly what crime he was accused of and forbade his counsel from bringing several favorable witnesses to testify.

The travesty that was New York v. Trump has been subject to reams of expert analysis and microscopic dissection, as much by public-spirited anti-Trump commentators as by those on the pro-Trump side of the docket.

Judge Merchan will simply skate over this embarrassing Facebook post, just as he skated over the rights of the defendant, Donald J. Trump. The house always wins in the end. Applied to the rule of law, that means that the regime party’s interests always take precedence over the rule of law.

Rather, the “rule of law,” just as Lenin taught us, is simply whatever the party demands. For the dedicated communist (or Democrat progressive), the very idea of “impartiality” is a bourgeois construct, a MAGA (or ultra-MAGA) fiction, and therefore eminently dispensable. Juan Merchan and his alter-ego District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, have just earned themselves a footnote in the dismal annals of legal depravity. Do not, however, expect any smidgeon of remorse to trouble their consciences. Those presiding over the house accounts do not have time for such sentimentalities. Ideological conformity and the power and perquisites such conformity brings are their heart’s desires, their existential cynosures.

The house always wins. That’s what matters—fairness, impartiality, and the very idea of a non-partisan application of the law be damned.

Welcome to the end of the republic.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: devine; fakenews; fatalvin; juanmerchan; juanmmerchan; judge; judgemerchan; merchan; miranda; mirandadevine; rogerkimball; wetbackcur
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To: Az Joe

The Judges office and Trumps attorney have said it’s real. If it weren’t, they would have loudly denounced it by now.


41 posted on 06/09/2024 4:08:16 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: JohnEBoy

It seems to be the way things are heading.


42 posted on 06/09/2024 4:08:21 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (6,575,474 Truth | 87,429,044 Twitter)
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To: All

What NY is after is Irreparable Harm.

We are talking small beans. He openly trashed Construction Rights about six times. Just the Selective Prosecution is illegal, but no one talks about it.

People are effectively arguing here that Jeffrey Dalmer wouldn’t hurt the 8th guy he takes into his apartment, no way. Thats a bridge too far.

Merchan got the case because it was a setup. NY changed the statute of limitations to get Trump. The Courts in NY have already been a part of this railroading.

I guarantee what Merchan does.


43 posted on 06/09/2024 4:18:26 PM PDT by OakOak (Misinformation Campaign on your TV)
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To: All

Constitutional Rights


44 posted on 06/09/2024 4:19:30 PM PDT by OakOak (Misinformation Campaign on your TV)
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To: Pilsner

Do you know it’s Illegal under NY Law for Judges to make Campaign Donations?

Prohibited under NY Law.

Merchan donated to Biden / Harris in 2020 - a Violation of NY Law.

He also donated to a Stop Trump Org.

This was a NY Setup all the way.


45 posted on 06/09/2024 4:30:16 PM PDT by OakOak (Misinformation Campaign on your TV)
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To: OakOak

“”It won’t matter if his daughter posted it, or a daughter of a Juror.””

His daughter? Whose daughter?
That still isn’t an answer to WHO are you talking about!!


46 posted on 06/09/2024 4:36:34 PM PDT by Thank You Rush
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To: Thank You Rush

I’m saying it doesn’t matter. Merchan is the sole arbiter.

I used Daughter because Merchan’s daughter represents the Biden / Harris Campaign and has raised over $100 Million off this very case.

You’re chasing something I’m not interested in, because anyone that followed this case knows how Merchan will rule. It’s a done deal.

NY has Trump where they want him. They run out the clock til Election.

Merchan probably never pays for another meal in his life after he sentences Trump.


47 posted on 06/09/2024 4:43:08 PM PDT by OakOak (Misinformation Campaign on your TV)
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To: Liz

Where this idea of the courts revelation process originate? Where did these six points come from regarding the NYSC?


48 posted on 06/09/2024 4:45:51 PM PDT by evangmlw
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To: All

People need to realize that even if it’s all True, Merchan only needs to rule it didn’t affect his trial and his Verdict.

As I said earlier, NY Law prohibits judges from making Campaign contributions, didn’t stop Merchan and it didn’t stop the NY system from picking him to get Trump in this case.

Then Merchan denied the U.S. Constitution and settled law and said that’s not the way he read the Law - and hit Trump over and over and over.

The charges, the trial, and the jury instructions were all Constitutionally defective.


49 posted on 06/09/2024 5:32:00 PM PDT by OakOak (Misinformation Campaign on your TV)
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To: TBP

Where exactly is the verification that the poster you are referring to is the same “Mark Anderson” that posted on the Courts Facebook page? Rhetorical question as the proof as of this moment does NOT exist.


50 posted on 06/09/2024 6:10:38 PM PDT by traderrob6
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To: evangmlw

It was all on FR.


51 posted on 06/09/2024 6:29:06 PM PDT by Liz (This then is how we should pray: Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name . )
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To: sunny bonobo
https://news.yahoo.com/news/self-described-poster-launched-trump-001243350.html The account’s owner elaborates on sh**posting, defining such messages as “intentionally designed to derail discussions or cause the biggest reaction with the least effort,” and tells readers, “Take it easy… I’m a professional shitposter.”
52 posted on 06/09/2024 7:40:12 PM PDT by roving (Deplorable Erectionists Listless Vessel )
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To: george76

Bkmk


53 posted on 06/09/2024 8:07:28 PM PDT by sauropod ("This is a time when people reveal themselves for who they are." James O'Keefe Ne supra crepidam)
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To: roving

Thanks. But the article still pisses me off. It just reeks of contempt by the author. Trying to pass it off as another crazy right wing conspiracy. Damn it. We didn’t make it up. This idiot did. Blame it on him and Merchan for not checking it out.


54 posted on 06/09/2024 8:12:46 PM PDT by sunny bonobo
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To: vivenne

Not good enough


55 posted on 06/09/2024 9:54:32 PM PDT by Az Joe (Live free or die)
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To: Az Joe

Good night.


56 posted on 06/09/2024 11:38:45 PM PDT by vivenne
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To: george76

It may well be that they are looking for an excuse to slink out of this. The blowback is not what they expected.


57 posted on 06/10/2024 9:03:57 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose of a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped)
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