Just Juan in a Million

Merchan's book deal doubles if he sentences Trump to jail time.

Q: How many judges does it take to convict a former president?

A: Just Juan.

You do not have to like Trump to not like what is happening to the man.

Through this dog’s breakfast of a trial, I learned that judges are more important to a fair and legal outcome than I ever expected and due to that realization, I will be a damn sight more attentive to Utah’s retention/rejection processes for judges. I will also pay more attention to the types of judges being appointed to the federal bench and the senators who vote to confirm, especially the GOP senators.

Never having to go before a judge, I never knew that judges could put their finger on the scales the way alleged judge Juan Merchan did – and he clearly directed that jury like they were the New York Symphony.

Judges another area on which the GOP should be razor focused.

It is possible the next president will replace two Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, so not winning the Oval carries additional, possibly tragic, consequences.

You would expect the takedown of a former president would need to be something clandestine and spectacular – but the process was as mundane as it was efficient and crooked.

Doesn’t really take that much effort because no real investigation, evidence or researching legal theories is required. These days, you can just make that all up.

All it really takes is a DA willing to resurrect an old misdemeanor that is way past the statute of limitations, expand  that misdemeanor to a felony using an undisclosed predicate federal crime, sensationalize the charges by separating one thing into many instances of the same thing to increase the count number, get a hand-picked a judge who is not inclined to toss out any of it, one perfectly happy to limit the defendant to a very narrow defense while letting the prosecution run from sideline to sideline by allowing testimony from people who were convicted of violating campaign laws and letting the prosecution imply that Trump was guilty of the same, then allowing a witness to dirty the defendant up with salacious and irrelevant testimony,  let the defense get away with introducing new evidence as part of their closing – after the defense had already closed (the defense closing first is a New York thing, but seems patently unfair), and then give the jury instructions that defy the defendants constitutional rights but would surely guarantee a guilty verdict.

Too much to be coincidence, this was all planned very carefully down to the timing of Michael Colangelo leaving the DOJ to work as a prosecutor for Tish James and then for Alvin Bragg in the Manhattan DA’s office.

I feel down about this – not because I think the conviction will stand, I do not, I feel down because this did not have to happen and the people who caused it do not care what damage they have just done. I feel down because this puts a cloud over the entire justice system, turning it into a Democrat run “just us” system.

I agree that we are going to need to make Democrats hurt over this or they will not stop. The difference is that we know when to quit, Democrats do not.

I do not like where it leads but the GOP needs to follow Obama’s advice and punch back twice as hard.

That’s what it takes to stop a bully.