Criminal law, Supreme Court

Green Light: Supreme Court Votes to Allow Trump Sentencing But Could Merchan Pull a Bait-and-Switch?

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump to go forward today. The bare majority was secured when Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett voted with their liberal colleagues, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson. However, part of the rationale for the decision was that Acting New York Justice Juan Merchan indicated that he was going to issue an unconditional discharge without any jail or probation. The question is whether Merchan could pull a bait-and-switch and decide to impose punishment. It is highly unlikely but intriguing.

President-elect Donald Trump struck the right note and declined to criticize the Court. He simply stated that “This is a long way from finished and I respect the court’s opinion.”

Some of us predicted this result and specifically noted that Chief Justice Roberts would not want to issue a stay. Roberts prefers regular order and, like many jurists, prefers for cases to be finalized to allow for a complete appellate review. They tend to oppose interlocutory appeals for that reason.

In his earlier order, Merchan discussed various options and only said “an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.”

That is where some of us said that this case would land after the conviction. After the election, such a sentence became all but certain. It is the only option that would avoid the constitutional problems — and likely reversal — for Merchan.

The majority took that as a done deal and noted that the President-elect would not have to attend in person and would not face any punishment. The Court may believe that it has sealed Merchan’s suggestion in legal amber.  There is little likelihood that Merchan will depart from the course, but could he?

The answer is probably yes. The Supreme Court did not issue a conditional order that the sentencing is allowed if it is unconditional.

That makes this notably informal. Defendants are allowed to address the court before sentencing and no sentence is finalized until the sentencing hearing. What if Trump came in and expressed open contempt for Merchan and mocked the case? Some judges might take such an allocution moment to increase punishment.  Merchan could threaten contempt but that increasing punishment would go against the operating assumption of the Court’s 5-4 decision.

The Supreme Court decision itself does not order Merchan to issue an unconditional discharge. It simply treats it as a done deal.

It is not as a legal matter, but it is as a practical matter.

Today, we will see the ignoble end to a raw form of lawfare by one of its most committed warriors. After millions in costs and years of litigation, it will result in no punishment. What the left will get is the labeling of Trump as a convicted felon, a fact that will then be repeated like a mantra by the media. Merchan can be expected to add to that rhetoric with punishment soundbites, as he has in the past.

However, the result shows how this case was more inflated than the Goodyear blimp. It will be punishment by soundbite in a case based on a ridiculous criminal theory. He will be sentenced without our even knowing what jurors concluded happened in the case since Merchan did not require them to agree on the specific motivation or purpose of underlying acts.

The benefit for President Trump is that he can finally appeal this case. While expectations are low for the New York court system which failed to prevent the political weaponization of its criminal justice system, it can now be reviewed in its totality and eventually go back the United States Supreme Court.

234 thoughts on “Green Light: Supreme Court Votes to Allow Trump Sentencing But Could Merchan Pull a Bait-and-Switch?”

  1. The two conservatives, or should I say “conservatives”, on the Court voted the way they did due to reasons that they are at least able to explain legally and judicially and although I disagree with them and am disappointed with their votes, at least they have a legal leg to stand on.

    Now please tell me one, JUST ONE, political case where the liberals didn’t vote in lock step, even with an open and shut Constitutional issue on the table.

    As I said in a different column, the left votes as a monolith every time. Even the Laken Riley Bill which had a procedural vote in the Senate yesterday had NINE Democrats voting against deporting illegals that commit crimes, second crimes actually, while here.

    Even Senator Fetterman says that deporting illegals committing new crimes while here shouldn’t be unreasonable.

    Trump and the Republicans should harp on the idea of being the COMMON SENSE party. You had the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society and now you should have Common Sense and hammer the Dems for the border, the transing of kids, banning gas stoves and water heaters and trans reading hours.

    COMMON SENSE!

    1. The government programs you cite all featured massive wasteful spending and unconstitutional Fedgov over-reach. By making this analogy, are you advocating that “Common Sense” should share those attributes? I hope that is a rhetorical question, but I think the point should be addressed.

      1. 6, learn to read. I am saying the opposite, that Trump’s Administration should use the moniker Common Sense as an anecdote to the failed liberal policies. I would have thought that from the CONTEXT of my full comment you would have gleaned that since I support Trump and conservatives that I wouldn’t exactly be a huge fan if the Great Society. But somehow it eluded you??

      1. “What are trans reading hours”? Really? Have you been in a coma, are you obtuse, are you being a partisan hack or are you just being disingenuous?

  2. The indictment is worth reading. The 34-count case laid out in the indictment is that Trump’s writing falsely labeled checks and associated records starting after he was in the WH in 2017 was an attempt to steal the 2016 election. No Trump misconduct in 2016 or earlier was the subject of the indictment.
    How do you prove criminal intent when Trump had no motivation to break the law after he had already won? Given that paying Stormy for her NDA was not illegal, it is no surprise that neither Stormy nor Cohen nor the NDA are mentioned in the indictment. It is a crime that this case is even a xase.

    1. Answer: A corrupt justice system in New York.
      Consolation, bragg is gone in January. And he’ll get a rich and comfy seat at the Dem table. Might even get a free house on segregated Martha’s Vineyard.

      1. Bragg will be PROSECUTED and Perp walked right into PRISON.
        Investigate him. Get him before a Grand Jury. Put him through the ringer. Bankrupt him. Strip him of his pension. No appeal.
        These criminals MUST BE MADE EXAMPLES.

        1. Bragg cannot be held crimminally liable. Only if he broke the law. He did not. The law was not broken, it was twsited. Trump has to appeal, then the questiosn of law will be analyzed. But nothing will be found. Think people. Ranting senselessly sheds no light on the issue.

          1. Trump didn’t break the law either.
            The law was twisted by Bragg and Merchan.
            And now the law will be twisted to PROSECUTE THE SH*t out of Bragg and Merchan.

            1. Trump didn’t – prove it. The jury said he did.
              They twisted the law, again, it has to be proven.
              You obviously not a NY state lawyer, and certainly not a lick of legal training.
              Attacking those two, let alone charging and indictiing them, will never ever happen. Get that thru your thick skull man.

          2. I don’t know, these come to mind. Abuse of authority
            Collusion and conspiracy in election interference
            Fraud
            Hey, use their own playbook, see what sticks and bleed the pig a bit?!

    2. Why prosecute Trump for a chump change something void of intent that harmed or financially impacted no one while allowing Hillary Clinton to pay a small fine for doing the exact same thing only with intent to deceive for multi millions. Clintons fraud dossier resulted in costing taxpayers $42M in legal costs as well as subverting a duly elected president? It was TREASON.

    3. Agreed. He has been convicted of classifying retainer payments to his attorney as legal expenses. I don’t recall that accounting guidelines would allow for anything else. Settling a dispute with an NDA and payment is a common legal practice, except now in NY. When the rule of law fails like it has in NYC, it’s time to beat a hasty retreat to friendlier climes.

  3. It’s all theater folks as this kangaroo court decision along with the deportation Trump plans will stoke the flames of division everywhere in every major city in America as these Civil war movies are projecting our reality for 2025!

    Official trailer for “Leave The World Behind” produced by the Obama’s and released December 8th 2023:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMVBi_e8o-Y

    Official trailer for “Civil War” release April 12th, 2024:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWj_mfU-c5M

    First 8 Minutes of Homestead released December 20th, 2024:

    .youtube.com/watch?v=32VpkuAfGno

    Civil unrest will commence this spring as we just entered the 4th year of this timeline!:

    sumofthyword.com/2016/10/04/the-rapture-of-the-church-is-after-the-tribulation/

    These Luciferians want you dead no matter how it takes place as they are the power structure of this harlot named in Revelation chapters 17 & 18!:

    sumofthyword.com/2021/01/07/mystery-babylon-the-great-and-her-beast/

    1. Rob,

      You might not have been aware, but this website only allows two hyperlinks per comment. I edited your comment so that it would post. If in the future, you would like for the readership to review more than two hyperlinks, this can be be posted by making multiple comments of two or fewer links each.

      1. Adding punctuation to the url that is illegal by html standards but is easy to spot and remove can also work.

  4. Comrade Turley, true to form, you’re coming in hot with your standard fare “some of us predicted” nonsense. Seems to me you were predicting full discharge a couple weeks back. And this court would’ve done it had it not been for the flagrantly idiotic Alito/trump phone call. If, after that, they rescued fatty mcbonespurs we’d have the 1/6 version at the SCOTUS. Except no one would’ve crapped on a desk this time.

    Looking for an audible today? How’s this…, Merchan attaches a condition overriding DOJ policy to not prosecute sitting presidents…, and Biden backs it up with an EO.

    Party on!!

    1. Hey Anonymous, you hate Turley and yet you are here every day, that is very odd…like you.

      Hey Anonymous, you bring up the old classic “Bonespurs” as a way to mock Trump for his lack of service, please remind me of what branch Biden, Obama and Bill Clinton served in. Or is it only an issue with a Republican? Also, I notice that military service is now important to you regarding political leaders so please tell us who you voted for when Bill Clinton, who ran to Moscow to avoid the draft, ran against WAR HERO Bob Dole? Please tell us who you voted for when Obama ran against WAR HERO John McCain? Please tell is what your thoughts are on MOSCOW Bernie Sanders and please tell us how proud you are of J D Vance.

      Hypocrisy is even worse than stupidity, congrats and blending the two so beautifully.

      3. A) You are here everyday.
        B) Hullslobby is really funny…and clever.
        C) Flirting with you? Either a narcissist or maybe trying to be funny in a 12 year old “you are gay” way.
        D) “Big boy”? What even is that?

    2. Turley predicted nothing of the sort, he laid out a scenario. Thats not a prediction. Turley is a lot smarter than you anon. YOur wimpering take down is a farce.

      2. C’mon, Anonymouses, use a handle separating one Anonymous from another, such as “Anonymous Jones”.

        1. I have been screaming for a long time that the site needs to mandate names, even if they aren’t truly names, just so we can differentiate between the different idiots going by Anonymous.

  5. The bigger case today is the TikTok oral argument in the SC. I’m curious where Prof. T stands on the national security rights of The People through their Congress vs. the “free speech” rights of ByteDance and the CCP? Is the 1st Amendment a license for foreign enemies to wage infowarfare on U.S. children against the wishes of their parents to exercise control over what they are exposed to?…..to protect their privacy rights against a foreign actor intent on destroying our country by mind-control over youth?

    That would have made for an interesting column. Maybe tomorrow?

    1. Parents don’t *have to* provide their kids with cell phones. Parenting belongs with parents, not government.

  6. Trump should just sew a big F on his suit jacket and do it proudly and then appeal.
    These cases have been seen for what they are and that is a miscarriage of justice for political purposes and they probably strengthened his political fortunes. It just reduces the judicial system of New York to the level of the racist south prior to the modern civil rights era. Having grown up in the South and seen what went on then, I would say the NY has reduced themselves to what I thought was a bygone era.
    Broadway has dropped themselves down to Tobacco Road.

    1. Miscarrige of justice? A a jury convicted him. You write nonsense.
      Racist south? What hogwash!
      WTF does you personal history have to do with NY state in 2024?

      1. Did you read the JURY INSTRUCTIONS???

        Find me a felony, multiple choice, any one of these will do. No unanimous verdict needed.
        A corrupt local prosecutor and a local dumass corrupt judge have NO jurisdiction over federal election law.
        The entire case is bogus bullshlit.

        Merchan is a SICK DANGEROUS JOKE. Disrobe him, perp walk him. Make a global mockery of him. Then LOCK HIM UP.

        1. You know Merchan is sitting in his chambers, with a big old hard on, just trippin’ over his power to do this to a president of the united states. Merchan and Bragg are sick motherfvckers.

        2. Screaming at an anon doesn’t make your rant convincing. The judge can do what he wants in his court room. Do you get that? Obviously not.

      2. Miscarriage of justice or carriage of injustice, for sure. Dershowitz’ “worse case I’ve ever seen”, which is a mouthful for an (old) ACLU warrior/professor. (“Old ACLU” meaning the Bill of Rights watchdog before it became the Democratic tool it is now.)

      3. “A jury convicted him”…of what? Merchan’s consistent bias and confusing instructions made it impossible to even know what DT was convicted of, and the worse case scenario guarantees an appeals court will toss the case and “conviction” out.

    2. So how old were you when you lived in the south, 10, 12 years old. If older, you’re not a lawyer, just a naive observer. How can you possibly realate that to Trumps conviction?

      1. Easy: manifest injustice, bottomed on a blatantly bogus legal theory asserted by a corrupt, deeply biased prosecutor and railroaded by a corrupt, hanging judge. A good, dark movie script spotlighting the worst possibilities of the judicial system of a corrupt state.

  7. I believe this ruling the golden opportunity for the transparent revealing of a politically corrupted and biased judiciary. Once sentenced Trump’s attorneys can bring to light every single failure and ethical violation that the judge has imposed upon him in his appeal. It’s the same with the 2020 election, Trump must show his full hand of what is irrefutable empirical evidence of the 2020 fraud. The evidence that in nearly every court was thrown out without review on a no standing rule. He must reveal the corruption and hold those accountable. It’s the only way we unite and move forward as one Nation under God.

    1. What would be the point of documenting the ~500 cases of illegally cast votes in the 2020 Presidential election?
      That there were such cases? Only a lo-info progressive claims there were zero frauds. Going to court with these examples would merely reinforce the conclusions of the Judges that threw Guiliani out with dismissals in late 2020– the numbers (an average 10 fraudulent votes per state) weren’t enough to change the outcome.

      1. “Going to court with these examples would merely reinforce the conclusions of the Judges that threw Guiliani out with dismissals in late 2020”

        I have two problems with that analysis. One is that the voting procedures in place (overall, not restricting this to tabulating mechanisms) very much tend toward the “permissive”; meaning designed to facilitating voting by as many persons as possible, not restricting voting to only those who unambiguously qualify, and identifying fraudulent votes attempted contemporaneously, or cast, after the fact. That means that assessing the number of illegitimate votes after the fact is a process very much fraught with error, and probably vastly underestimates the number of such votes. Also, there is a second vitally important aspect to voting that is often lost in the numeric shuffle: the public needs to have confidence that votes were legitimately cast, and accurately counted; the survival of a representative form of government depends on that perception.

      2. That’s rich, the collusion of 51 Intelligence officials and the FBI misrepresenting the Hunter laptop as Russian misinformation and fraudulent FISA warrants all preceding an election along with ballot harvesting and fraudulent mail in ballots cost Trump the election. Let’s see what they got, make the case, if there’s nothing there why worry? After all, a lot of things they claimed all turned out to be true.

    2. I would like to see a ban on judges and practicing attorneys who are not US citizens (evidently the case wrt Merchan). I think that the Constitutional limits on Federal power most likely prevent an outright Federal ban on this at State and local levels, but, since immigration control is in the Federal venue, perhaps a law could be enacted to require new immigrants to sign a binding agreement not to serve in such a capacity until and unless achieving citizenship as part of the immigration process, with the penalty of permanent deportation for violation?

  8. The endorsement of lawfare by the United States Supreme Court, which is the heart of its ruling, solidifies the belief held by the American people that the judicial system is broken beyond repair. We have watched the transition from a trusted branch of government into a mechanism for political manipulation and corruption of the highest order. Judges are now reminiscent of the traveling witch hunters of the inquisition. Justice is no longer the goal of The Law. The American People recognize that and have begun to shift accordingly. Respect for The Law is quite dead. Obedience to The Law is next to go. When that happens, the rage building in the nation will explode with potentially horrific consequences. I am not sure that this can be avoided. I fear that the Rubicon has been crossed.

    2. Democrats do whatever the h*ll they want. AG Garland defies Congress, defies contempt. Democrats ignore whatever rulings or orders they don’t like. President Biden stands at his podium and calls the Supreme Court illegitimate. Biden says the Supreme Court DOES NOT FOLLOW THE CONSTITUTION! Biden says it OUT LOUD TO THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY — that the Supreme Court is not following the law because Democrats do not agree with the court’s rulings! Then the Supreme Court sides with its abusers. It’s pathetic.

      Then Biden’s Attorney General ignores whatever the h*ll he wants to ignore. Completely unethical and lawless.
      They don’t like a ruling? They ignore it.
      Jack Smith does whatever the h*ll he wants and the Attorney General allows it ALL.

      DEMOCRATS DESTROY EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH.

      1. “DEMOCRATS DESTROY EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH.”

        U.S. employers added a booming 256,000 jobs in December
        trump will be inheriting the strongest economy ever (EVER). I am pretty sure the Dems have had the Presidency these past 4 years. Let’s see what trump does to the strongest economy ever.

        1. “U.S. employers added a booming 256,000 jobs in December”

          The vast majority of which were Fedgov or Fedgov-related jobs. Nice try, no cigar.

    3. The election judge in PA assured us people ignore the law all the time, presumably without consequences. She – a Democrat, of course – tried to impose “Democrat ought law”, mimicking Merchan. “Show me a Republican defendant, and I”ll find a charge to convict him.”

  9. What’s most alarming is that this bogus case could not be stopped by a Grand Jury, based on the ridiculous legal theory that a politician covering up an affair is somehow a felony. How many pols have ever been charged this way when caught having affairs? Common sense would compel an independent-thinking GJ to return a no-bill. But, the GJ system has been taken over by the elites — the average citizen is voiceless as a Grand Juror. This has to be reformed as a check and balance on the power of D.A.s and U.S. Atty.s.

    3. You claim to be an attorney. You’re surely familiar with the old saw about prosecutors, juries, and ham sandwiches, are you not?

  10. There is no victory via lawfare in this case or any similarly motivated/conducted case. We all suffer when the law is belittled by public officials but especially so when done by judges.

  11. Merchan was put in his position of ‘acting’ justice in order to do the political dirty work he has done.
    His daughter’s business is profiting from Democrat lawfare.
    Merchan is completely lawless. Unrestrained.
    NOTHING is being done to STOP it. Merchan has been given the stamp of legitimacy when there is none.
    Same with Engoron.
    Same with the judge who presided over the Bergdorf rape case.
    We have shown the world that America is nothing more than a corrupt 3rd world Banana Republic.
    Biden is a criminal, a liar, a scumbag and an obviously senile sitting president. A sick joke.
    BIDEN IS THE CRIMINAL. The Bidens are crooks, liars, and treasonous sellouts owned by China. Everyone knows it.
    Wire fraud, tax fraud, bribery, etc.
    Yet Trump is the one being railroaded by our INJUSTICE system and the gutless cowards who could have stopped it are rubber stamping it.
    Trump will now be branded ‘convicted felon’ before the world. By these lawless, radical motherfvckers.
    It is INFURIATING and OUTRAGEOUS what Biden and Garland have gotten away with.

    Punishment for all of these criminals would be: disbarred, shackles, belly chains, leg irons, orange jumpsuits, public perp walks, lengthy, substantial prison time.
    Most importantly: Strip them all of their government pensions. No appeal.

    1. And yes, the Fake News are the Enemy of the People.
      The fake news could be reporting, critically, on the lawlessness. But they are not.
      Instead, the fake news are in on it.
      they are giving the lawfare legitimacy by how they are reporting on it.
      Biden has never had to answer for ANY of it.
      Biden has never had to answer for ANYTHING.
      He lies with no pushback or correction. No aggressive fact checking.
      For four years, Biden simply turns his back on reporters as they say, every time, with great deference, “thank you, sir”
      Then they let Biden label himself as “decent”….honest….compassionate….and “just.” When he is NONE OF THOSE THINGS!
      It’s OUTRAGEOUS.

    2. The biggest indicator that this conviction is lawfare and not to be taken aeriously is as I explained yesterday: Hillary Clinton remains unprosecuted for committing the same two crimes. The FEC even fined her in 2022 for mislabeling the money she spent to gin up the Steele Dossier as “Legal Services,” on reports she submitted to them.

        1. Anonymous, “maybe because the facts didn’t support it”???? Well I guess in your pea brain it couldn’t be that the DOJ was run by people cheating to get her elected, that there wasn’t a Republican DA involved or that Biden’s DOJ is the most corrupt in our history.

          But hey, you do you.

        2. She was fined, selective prosecution and there was ample evidence. Protected elite, ask Juanita Brodderick.

  12. What Trump should do, and very likely will do, is give Merchan a thorough dressing down, while thoroughly admonishing the entire proceeding against him, in effort to goad Merchan into jailtime. Trump needs to take this to the limit. That’s what I would do. And that’s what I think anyone with a reasonable level of courage and self respect should be expected to do. And so the fun begins.

  13. I would not Trust Merchan/Brag/DEMS, they are all radical snakes, untrustworthy. After this Friday fiasco and NY clown show, the Appeals begin and this case will be over turned and then the Press will ignore the over turn. The Majority of the Voters have moved on and they know this is a DEM set up. The Voters want Pres. Trump in office ASAP and save us from the Radical DEM’s and Biden Admin. policies and spending like drunken sailors. Ask the people of North Carolina and LA what they are concerned about this Merchan Brag DEM clown show or Trump taking over ASAP and solve the problems.

  14. Trump should have Justice Clarence Thomas swear him in.
    Tell John Roberts to pound sand.

  15. “The benefit for President Trump is that he can finally appeal this case.”

    To who? Corrupt New York courts? who will drag it out before they even hear the appeals?
    To a delegitimized Supreme Court full of intimidated, gutless cowards and leftist dumasses?
    John Roberts ALLOWED Biden to delegitimize them. HE ALLOWED IT.

    The intended damage has been done. The appeal process will be a joke.

    The lawlessness needed to be STOPPED. Instead it was GIVEN LEGITIMACY by gutless cowards who are now deligitimized themselves.
    What a clusterf*ck.

    These judges, prosecutors and courts ALLOWED the United States to BECOME a THIRD WORLD HELLHOLE.

    *Will Trump’s Department of Justice pursue and prosecute the Contempt of Congress against AG Merrick Garland? Can they?
    They should pursue it, prosecute Garland and give him actual prison time. Put the brazen scumbag behind bars. DO IT.

  17. That was exactly my question when I read the decision.

    How can the justices know the sentence before it is passed?

    Or, how can they know that an unconditional discharge is relatively insubstantial? What if, for example, a foreign nation rejects an ambassador who was appointed by a convicted criminal? Isn’t it an impediment to the president’s powers?

    1. Foreign countries are getting ambassadors who were convicted criminals, why should it matter who appoints them.

  18. 😱 Oh no, Trump’s a convicted felon! Merchon scolded Trump. Yeah, being elected POTUS, by the very government that blatantly used lawfare to make you a felon, is the ultimate response. This will only succeed in cementing his legendary status. He may very well become the GOAT.

    1. You must be so proud. Liable for sexual assault, fraudulent university shut down, funds from charity he controls used to buy portrait of himself, serial cheater on all of his wives. Just the role model America needs.

      1. Boo ya! And Bill Clinton was upstanding (while wearing a dress)? Hillary clean as a whistle? Biden taking cash from China, the president’s son a drug addict, whoring about the world. Oh yeah, DT is evil incarnate. Oh, and a crimminal too. Good lord, the country will never survice the next 4 yrs. We’re all doomed.
        Should I focus on Obama next?

        1. All these comparisons aside, it does raise the question of whether a saint like Jimmy Carter or a sinner like DJT is better as our President? In other words, is the President there to set a moral exemplar for cultural leadership, or as a ruthless defender of the U.S. in a hostile world? You’re not going to find both qualities in the same individual.

      3. Voters knew about all of that. But they decided your Democrat Party is worse. I’m not the first to note that Trump’s approval ratings began to turn around after corrupt Democrat prosecutors and judges began the series of abusive lawfare campaigns against him.

        The things you bring up about Trump are personal to him. To the extent any are legit, they are PERSONAL failings. None are abuses of government power, which is what your party now engages in routinely.

        So, one way to interpret the election, and the way I interpret it, is that voters decided to take their chances on an imperfect man whose flaws and failings are personal and known, over a toxic Democrat Party. A party that chose to abuse the power entrusted to it by voters. Democrats have demonstrated they are willing to pervert the justice system for political gain, and that effects the whole country. Your PARTY is wholly corrupt. It can not be trusted with government power.

        1. Perhaps, with Democrats out of power, our justice and political systems can return to honesty and rule of law as governing principles, at least for awhile. We can hope.

        2. Can anyone point to lawfare (including bogus charges), clearly biased plea bargaining by DOJ, illlegal appointment (contrary to law) of “special counsel”, and bogus, biased rulings by partisan trial judges under Trump?

  20. Silly column. Merchan isn’t going to pull a bait-and-switch. Turley is fanning paranoia.

    1. Get over your silly anonymous self. Since everybody knows how erratic Trump can be, the argument that IF Trump appears and chooses to go off the rails, then Merchan could very well decide to make a last minute change in the sentence is definitely an argument worth considering.

      2. So he’s sworn in jail, pardons himself and unleashes hell on Merchan through the DOJ?! Trump is a bit more sly than you think.

      1. Telling it like it it is – together with Dershowitz and McCarthy – is Turley’s failing. Shame!

    3. And yet he got you out of your sleep to comment here, wasting your precious time.

    4. Anonymous, Professor Turley is tangentially warning President-Elect Trump that making a “scene” in the courtroom can derail an unconditional discharge. The Professor is shining a spotlight on Marchan simply so as not to offend the President-Elect, but the commentary is directed at Trump. The President-Elect may see a political advantage in tweaking Marchan’s beard. If so, Trump also needs to be aware of the legal ramifications.

      The only mistake Professor Turley might be making is assuming that explaining anything to President Trump–however politely–will be heeded.

      The only mistake I might be making is assuming you actually care. To be clear, I make no such assumptions about trolls.

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