Below is my column in the New York Post on the effort of Alvin Bragg to suspend the criminal case against President-Elect Donald Trump for almost five years. It would be a terrible choice for the court and for the country.
Here is the column:
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pushed Tuesday to create a new constitutional creature: the layaway president.
It was once common for stores to hold expensive items that you really wanted but could not make the payment.
So they were tagged and kept on the shelf until you were ready to redeem your item.
For Bragg, that leaves Donald Trump tagged until 2029.
In a filing before Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan, Bragg suggested that the court should stay the pending criminal case and defer any sentencing “until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term.”
That would allow a city prosecutor to put a leash on a sitting president for four years.
Trump would govern by the grace of this local judge and district attorney.
In the meantime, pundits and politicians could portray the president as free on a type of work release program.
The suggestion is appalling to most of the people in the country, including the majority of voters who voted for Trump.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats ran on this and other cases in the election.
The result was arguably the largest jury decision in history.
That being said, I do not believe that the mere election of a president negates jury verdicts on 34 criminal counts.
But ample reasons exist to overturn those verdicts or to dismiss this case.
For example, after the verdict, the Supreme Court rendered its immunity decision barring the use of certain evidence against a president.
Some of the evidence used in the Manhattan case likely fell within one of the protected categories.
The prosecutors not only elicited testimony from Trump aides in the White House but then doubled down on the significance of that evidence in their closing arguments.
Merchan could declare that the court cannot rule out the impact of such testimony on the final verdict.
Even if Merchan, as expected, does not dismiss the case on the basis for the immunity decision, the trial was rife with reversible error.
This was a raw exercise of lawfare and Merchan did little to ensure fairness toward the defendant.
Yet none of those errors can be likely addressed until Merchan reaches final decisions on the motion to dismiss as well as the sentencing question.
While that will mean that Trump could, upon possible sentencing, formally become a convicted felon, the matter can then be finally pried out of the hands of Merchan and taken to higher courts for review.
The worst possible option is the one suggested by Bragg, who would adopt the popular persona of Trump’s turnkey.
The President would be seen by many as governing on a type of conditional status from one of the most politically compromised prosecutors in the country.
For Bragg and other Trump opponents, that may be far more satisfying than a sentencing now given the unlikelihood of any jail component.
After the years and millions spent on the case, it would be the ultimate buzz kill to have Trump sentenced to some fine or other non-carceral penalty.
Many Democrats want to have Trump govern with an asterisk of a “President pending sentencing.”
Instead, Trump would govern with the clock ticking toward a sentencing date.
It is a dangerous precedent. Such pending sentences can have a coercive impact on a president in dealing with given officials, including a state governor who might be willing to pardon a president.
Consider the effort of the governor of New York in restoring the lucrative state and local tax, or SALT, deductions.
There is no reason to believe that Trump would succumb to such leverage (and he has already indicated that he would consider the change).
However, any decision on policies like SALT would be the subject of speculation of whether a reduction in taxation was made in the hope of a reduction in incarceration.
Critics would suggest that New York is yanking on the leash to achieve policy advantages.
This is the same judge and prosecutor who gagged the leading candidate for the presidency in discussing aspects of the case in the months leading up to the election.
Now, they would allow him to govern pending their own suspended decisions on his future.
The Trump case was always a thrill kill for Bragg.
Under Bragg’s proposal, his supporters would prolong that thrill for four more years.
The cost, however, would be devastating for the country.
This country needs a president, not a president on layaway from the Manhattan District Attorney.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Might I suggest a new Constitutional creature….the “putaway prosecutor.” Revoke the licenses of bragg and his ilk and put them away, back in the ghetto-slums that spawned them.
I’m afraid our profession has reached new lows. Trump, it seemed, had to be deemed so beyond the pale that not only was he prosecuted for transparently political reasons, but attorneys representing him were singled out for “professional discipline” and disbarment. It was all very Stalin-esque. I wish I could say that the New York appellate courts would put a stop to this nonsense, but it’s unlikely. Maybe, now that Trump has been elected, but if he had not been I doubt any court in the state would have done what obviously needed to be done.
The moral of the story:
Presidents that are convicted of 34 felonies has consequences! Trump should stop committing crimes.
You ignore the other and most likely option: ‘Own’ the prosecutors and investigators. Look how that worked for Joe in the face of real crimes like theft, bribery and extortion.
And you speak of morals? Quick, wash your mouth with soap!
He has not yet been convicted of anything. Plus even if he does get convicted, it is the result of a political show trial.
“I would be happier, as someone who owns property in Manhattan, if the district attorney of New York County would take care of criminals who were making it impossible for citizens to walk in the streets and use the subway, to use his efforts to keep those people off the street, than to spend $5 million or $10 million of taxpayers’ money trying Donald Trump on this nonsense,”
“I mean, if you look — you had to twist yourself into a pretzel to figure out what the crime was,”
— Judge Judy Sheindlin
“Presidents that are convicted of 34 felonies has consequences! Trump should stop committing crimes.”
That’s very similar to what Stalin said about everybody he sent his prosecutor Lavarentiy Beria to take out.
You should make better choices for your childhood heroes while you’re in your adolescence growing up.
I’m sure a motivated processor can put you and your family away for life with “creative count stacking”.
Trump is one of the few who has the money and resources to fight them. You can’t. Justice is all about the Benjamins.
GET HELP CHIT4BRAINS !!
“Trump should stop committing crimes.”
Why? He became POTUS twice, is a billionaire, has a hot wife and great kids, and is overhauling the government and embarrassing the left.
I say he shouldn’t change a thing.
Correct me if I’m wrong: Didn’t Donald Trump request a speedy trial at the very onset? Is this not a violation of the Sixth guaranty of a speedy trial, and in delaying the disposing of criminal charges, a violation of Tenth due process? What am I missing here? If forced to wait a full four years, could Trump sue for rights violations, and if not, why not? Noted, Bragg as “turnkey,” a coercive component, well-made point me thinks. I don’t see how this can fly in America. And our judicial system yet retain any semblance of authenticity.
Thank you Alvin Bragg for revealing what degrees from Harvard really are: tinged and tawdry.
Tammany Hall did not die. It just changed of its stripes.
…the idea of putting off the sentence of a Kangaroo Court that found the Greatest and Most Popular President of The United States ever so as to put a four year pause in putting President Elect Donald Trump in jail for political reasons makes as much sense as when John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the head and killed him for political reasons…President Trump has already been shot in the head and survived…leave the man alone and let him clean up the DC Swamp…’Make America Great Again’…and just try to put President Trump in jail four years from now and watch what happens…the WHOLE NATION WILL RAISE UP AND KICK THE ASSES OF THE MARXIST-SOCIALIST-LIBERAL-SCUM-BAGS ONCE AND FOR ALL !…
Who knew “Creative Law” was a thing? Why not? They changed laws, SOL, twisted facts into a pretzel no one could find what the crime was all just to “get Trump.”
Love the turn of phrase! But maybe it’s more like “lay-away justice?”
I know we have Miranda rights for a reason. If the Dems hate you do you still have 6th Amendment rights? Apparently Trump does not. A new low. Lawfare, PA illegal vote counting, Ballot Cleansing, One-Size-Fits-All Jury Instructions. Hate always destroys the person carrying it. St Peter had to reveal the deceit of Ananias, Sapphira. The Dems are busy revealing themselves. And it’s not the great party they once were
When the satraps pulled on King Darius’ leash and Daniel came out the next day alive, the king had those same satraps thrown into the lion’s den in Daniel’s place. 🙂
* You do know Daniel and others were angels and not humans? Right?
I sort of understand now why people have had desires to blow up courthouses or burn them down. I never really appreciated that point of view. Now I think the country can see what happens to unlawfully convicted people caught up in a system they can barely understand and which seemingly holds all the cards. Imagine what some poor smuck has to deal with who has no resources. New York has abandoned the rule of law. We have the President Elect caught up in 3 trumped up cases and a former US Marine charged with manslaughter for protecting the public from a felon which the city and state had failed to incarcerate.
I have no sympathy for New York, either the state or the city or its people since they keep voting these idiots in . Who is the bigger fool there? The fools that lead or the fools that follow and continue to vote for the leader fools.
Abandon that city and go somewhere else where people are sane.
You nearly make a case for burning down all of NYC. Only after giving sufficient notice to the 25 reasonable people there so that they can leave beforehand, of course…
Trump/Musk/Gaetz need to clean house of all activist Soros DA’s/Judges etc., such as Brag, James, Activist Judges such as Merchan in NY, Washington DC Courts and clean house in DOJ/FBI/Defense etc. Merchan runs a very flawed court, his version of the legal system runs counter to the actual law, prior court rulings, Constitution etc. Merchan daughter is paid a lot of $$$$ by the DEMS, as a so called consultant? which warrants an investigation to see the sources of the money and actually who benefits Brag and James are Soros backed Stooges and are supported by the Left Wing Radical Dem’s. Gaetz/Trump need to go after the lawfare groups and their pay masters. . We need to restore our faith/trust in the Courts/FBI/DOJ
The election was NOT “arguably the largest jury decision in history”. By most accounts, it was a decision based on the lackluster performance of the economy for the bottom half of Americans (those who live paycheck-to-paycheck).
It rings hollow to hear a leading Constitutional scholar and law school professor “reframe” the election result as a “jury decision” on the charges the Pres.-elect was facing, when we all know so many other weighty issues were up for grabs — economic, national security, American culture. Where were the strict rules of evidence? The neutral magistrate controlling the process? The jury instructions obliging juror votes to only consider the evidence presented during the trial (and to set aside outside factors)?
I agree that the best course for Judge Merchan is to dismiss. But, let’s stop trying to undermine the distinction between the court of public opinion and a court of law. The former is brimming over daily with self-serving warpage of truth and outright false narratives. Courts are the place where “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” forms the foundation for coming to agreement on what is what is right, what is wrong. Let’s never forget this crucial difference.
FYI, 67% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Of that 67%, 47% make six figures.
Courts, as well as the entire legal system, have been corrupted in New York to the point “Truth” is now a casualty there. When an AG runs for office on “getting” someone for something, not knowing what that “something” is, when AGs and DAs, who let real criminals walk, yet go out of their way to create unprecedented “Novel” and suspect legal theories and drive temporary changes to statutes of limitations through the legislature signed by the Governor to go after one man who is running for president and ALL involved in the effort, including the judges, are members of of the opposing political party, a party that has shown they are willing to do anything to sate their lust for power, it kills any expectation of “truth” being a result of the process. The American people saw through this, don’t like it and would have elected Trump from prison like a Nelson Mandela.
“The election was NOT “arguably the largest jury decision in history”. By most accounts, it was a decision based on the lackluster performance of the economy for the bottom half of Americans (those who live paycheck-to-paycheck).”
Just that? You are pathetic. Day drinking again?
Here is a short list if some notable cases of political prisoners who were eventually released or pardoned:
Nelson Mandela
Aung San Suu Kyi
Václav Havel
Kim Dae-jung
Lech Walesa
Ibrahim Ali
Buzurgmehr Yorov
In American history, Eugene V. Debs.
That’s all interesting- but is any option available? Writ of mandamus?
A Writ of Prohibition is the ticket.
https://www.legalbriefai.com/legal-terms/writ-of-prohibition
Well lets get Gaetz as AG…and TEAR APART the Corrupt Democrat UnLegal System
Yes, pick an alligator to clean up the swamp.
see you later alligator in a while crocodile
Republicans have to STOP being the party of nice!
Democrats are Fascists fighting a Civil War…their 2nd.
Jail Criminal Democrats/RINOs by 1000’s across gov., Judges, congress, etc), media, healthcare, tech, etc for their crimes
1) persecution of Trump and his people
2) helping Illegals
3) protecting Bidens and their people
4) Sex change of minors
5) Cheating on voting
6) Taking Bribes
7) COVID
That would, no doubt, really unleash lawfare against Democrats. I doubt that Republicans would counter with their own version of lawfare unless the Dems do something like this.
The Democrats have already done something like this, and are doing it right now. There musts be hundreds and hundreds of Republican prosecutors throughout the country. What needs to happen is a massive lawfare campaign against every prominent Democrat possible. It doesn’t really matter if these cases result in convictions, the point is to bleed them white.
They want lawfare, let’s give them lawfare.
If i was Trump, I would have the IRS and the DOJ climb up every orifice of every person even remotely Involved with the case. Let them find out what it feels like….
As satisfying as that sounds it would be a short-lived solution. Better to make systemic changes through EOs and legislation. If justice demands it, prosecute those who committed crumes – Comey, Clinton, etc
Exactly. As satisfying as escalating lawfare and directing back on the Dims, do we really want to continue with this precedent, let alone exacerbate it? What happens when the other side inevitably gets back in power, and focuses their efforts on revenge? Taken to extremes, which is what some here appear to be calling for, imo could destroy what remains of our Republic just about as quickly as handing the Marxist Dims the reins of power.
The pungency of Letitia James seems always to permeate these Satanic New York style legal proceedings.
Funny how those who perceive themselves to be victims are ever willing to victimize others when they have the opportunity.
Hence the need to fix things and break the cycle of abuse. Blind justice is a sign of civilization.