Below is my column at Fox.com on the sentencing of President-Elect Donald Trump. The conviction should be overturned on appeal. However, the most lasting judgment will be against the New York court system itself in allowing this travesty of justice to occur.
Here is the column:
With the sentencing of Donald Trump Friday, the final verdict on the New York criminal trial of the president-elect is in. The verdict is not the one that led to no jail or probation for the incoming president. Acting Justice Juan Merchan has brought down the gavel on the New York legal system as a whole.
Once considered the premier legal system in the country, figures like New York Attorney General Letitia James, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Justices Arthur F. Engoron and Juan Merchan have caused the system to be weaponized for political purposes. Trump will walk away from this trial and into the White House in less than two weeks, but the New York system will walk into infamy after this day.
The case has long been denounced by objective legal observers, including intense Trump critics, as a legal absurdity. Even CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig denounced the case as legally flawed and unprecedented while Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., simply called it total “b—s–t.”
It is a case based on a non-crime. Bragg took a long-dead misdemeanor and zapped it back into life with a novel and unfounded theory. By using federal violations that were never charged, let alone tried, Bragg turned a misdemeanor into dozens of felonies and essentially tried Trump for federal offenses.
Merchan not only allowed those charges to be brought to trial but then added layers of reversible errors in the effort to bag Trump at any cost. For that, he was lionized by the liberal media and many New Yorkers. However, Trump still managed to pull in 3.6 million New York votes, or 42.7%, in the 2024 election. After all of the lawfare and every advantage (including a heavily biased media and a larger war chest), Vice President Kamala Harris lost hundreds of thousands of votes in 2024 in comparison to Joe Biden just four years earlier.
Many polls showed that the public saw the Manhattan criminal case for what it was: raw lawfare targeting a leading political opponent. The election itself felt like the largest verdict in history as citizens rejected the political, legal, and media establishments in one of our nation’s most historic elections.
The New York court system will now have a chance to redeem itself but few are holding their breath. The appellate court has still not ruled on an appeal of Attorney General Lettia James’s equally absurd civil lawsuit against Trump. Despite judges expressing skepticism over Engoron’s use of a law to impose a grotesque $455 million in fines and interest, we are still waiting for a decision.
Most are waiting for this criminal case to escape the vortex of the New York court system. With this appeal, this peddler’s wagon of reversible errors will finally pull up in front of the Supreme Court itself.
With its ruling on Thursday night, the setting for a decision could not be better for Trump. The Supreme Court has again demonstrated that it has shown restraint and independence in these cases. In response to the ruling, Trump struck the perfect note Thursday night and declined to criticize the Court, stating that “This is a long way from finished and I respect the court’s opinion.”
The ultimate penalty on Friday morning from Judge Merchan reflects the lack of seriousness in the case. It was more inflated than the Goodyear blimp, pumped up by hot rage and rhetoric. The sentence was the pinprick that showed the massive void within this case.
The verdict is in. The New York legal system has rendered it against itself.
These type of illegal immoral and unethical acts of the courts and all those involved including especially or often exclusively prosecuting lawyers and biased parties is absolutely RAMPANT in the USA and has been for many years down to the city and township levels.
What is so unusual in this case is it has the highest of profiles and the most ridiculous FAR BEYOND EQUIVALENT MISDEEDS riding up front and public alongside of it committed by demoncrat party politicians.
That part, is truly stunning.
Jonathan: I listened to the full audio of the DJT sentencing hearing. You were one mentioned by DJT as one of the “legal scholars and pundits” who claim the AG Bragg case should never have been brought. Not unexpected because from day one of the trial you have condemned it–erroneously claiming the indictment and trial had no basis in the law or the evidence.
One attorney not named by DJT is Leo Terrell who has also condemned the trial and the sentence. DJT has appointed Terrell as senior counsel to the assistant AG in the DOJ Civil Rights division. Fox News quoted Terrell as saying “he is ‘salivating to get to the Department of Justice’, where he will be ‘very involved in pursuing justice’ surrounding the NY case and others brought against Trump”. Under Terrell the Civil Rights division will be re-named the “ANTI-Civil Rights Division”.
DJT has also appointed Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, his defense attorneys in the Manhattan trial, to high positions in the DOJ. DJT wants to weaponize the DOJ to go after his political enemies. That includes prosecutors and judges. Under DJT appointees there will be no “fair and impartial” administration of justice which is the mandate of the DOJ.
Getting back to Terrell how does he think the DOJ can investigate a state prosecution and sentence? It can’t. But that won’t stop Terrell and the rest of the MAGA crowd that will take over the DOJ. Terrell, a Black attorney and Fox News contributor, has long railed against the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ falsely claiming that “systemic racism does not exist” and “the extreme left has declared war on white Americans and white police officers.” On Fox Terrell has repeatedly defended DJT claiming there was “nothing wrong” with DJT’s attempt to pressure Georgia Secy of State Brad Raffensperger to change the vote count in the 2020 election. Terrell has also condemned Justice Merchan falsely claiming “the New York system [legal] will walk away into infamy after this day” and that Justice Merchan has caused the system to be weaponized for political purposes”.
So Terrell is firmly in the MAGA crowd supporting Trump. And he has now stuck his nose into the wildfires in LA. Three days ago he falsely and bizarrely complained about LAFD DEI policies.: “To have DEI, to have social justice in the fire department , this is ridiculous”. Terrell even bizarrely claims the LAFD has “no intention of putting out the fires”. Terrell apparently thinks gays, lesbians and people of color have no business serving in the fire department.
Terrell is just one of many MAGA lawyers who will be working in the DOJ to carry out DJT’s agenda of vengeance and retribution against those he considers his political enemies. You have often complained about the alleged “weaponization” of the DOJ by Joe Biden–using “lawfare” to go after DJT. What you are going to see after Jan. 20 is a “weaponization” of DOJ never seen in the history of the country.
Good. I hope you are truly completely horrified and crapping your panties.
I hope they come after you personally on TRUMPED UP charges !
And, grind you into bankruptcy and utter dust.
I will support them 100 percent with big money and legal counsel every chance I get, and will encourage the most grotesque aberrations imaginable, including to all who act like or know you or anyone you have supported in politics since 2016.
buckle up princess
Republicans don’t make the rules. They just follow them.
Maybe it’s simply karma?
Trump has gamed the system for decades, now he knows what it feels like to be on the receiv8ng end!
Extreme Republicans also wanted to lock up Hillary and Obama for far less. Karma:)
LMAO “for far less” is another one of those BIGGEST LIES EVER IMAGINABLE
Seems the Democrats are getting really good at forged documents, first birth certificates then smear reports in a push pull scheme.
Collateral: yesterday I commented on attorney-client privilege and how Cohen may have gone beyond the scope of any at-issue exceptions thereto.
Trump’s attorneys had apparently considered a Kaplan approach (https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-bankman-fried-42) ,(wherein a defendant might avoid waiving A-C privilege and an asserted advice-of-counsel defense– by instead showing an awareness of counsel’s involvement in the charged conduct through other third-party witnesses); leading, in this case, to show Trump’s “good faith and lack of intent.”
Apparently, his counsel later dropped that alternative and simply waived privilege. That resolves all for me. End of discussion!
“As Judge Kaplan recently stated, ‘evidence concerning the presence, involvement and even advice of lawyers in relevant events is viewed best as evidence probative of the defendant’s intent to defraud or lack thereof.’ United States v.
Bankman-Fried, 2023 WL 6392718, at *1 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 1, 2023); see also United States v. Scully,
877 F.3d 464, 476 (2d Cir. 2017) (‘[T]he claimed advice of counsel is evidence that, if believed,
can raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors about whether the government has proved
the required element of the offense that the defendant had an ‘unlawful intent.’). President Trump
intends to elicit these facts from witnesses, including former AMI executives and Michael Cohen,
whom we expect will testify about President Trump’s awareness of counsel’s involvement in the
charged conduct.
“This is not a formal advice-of-counsel defense….Accordingly, there is no
privilege waiver requiring production of communications protected by the attorney-client
privilege, ”
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24478394/trump-notice-re-advice-of-counsel-defense.pdf
excerpted from the Bankman-Fried case that Trump’s attys had cited.
“The New York legal system”
According to the Left, “the system” is untrustworthy and is responsible for all social ills (real or imagined). “The system” causes crime, poverty, drug addiction, obesity, child and spouse abuse, homelessness . . .
Yet somehow, the Manhattan judicial system is perfect. At least for this one case.
Funny, isn’t it.
Much ado about nothing.
This case and all the NYS lawfare was decided by the election.
76M people voted that either they did not care or were explicitly voting AGAINST the lawfare.
another approximately 70M registered voters did not vote – thereby confirming that they did not care whether the convicted felon/nazi was elected or the left wing nut who slept her way into power.
This lawfare has inarguably made Trump more not less popular.
You can buy your mug shot mug.
Or I voted for the felon tshirt.
In the unlikely event that Trump loses all apeals – this case will still be viewed as a huge political mistake, a lawless abuse of power and the rule of man not law.
Merchan’s best option was to find a way to let this die.
Instead he has nearly guaranteed a scathing appelate ruling.
New York has become the new Wild West of justice – recall the old joke of frontier justice: “You’ll get a fair trial then hang.” Yeah, that is the New York legal system and ALL should take note. Businesses of all kinds should flee (small and large) because a wrong move can land you before mental midgets like James, Brag, Merchan, or Engoron who simply apply any standard they see fit that day! Recall the Bodega worker who defended himself, or Daniel Penny, or the Trump sh!t shows? Don’t even bother visiting that Rat Hole of city or state lest you met the gallery of idiots!
Judge Henry T. Fleming is an icon of integrity and moral clarity compared to the subhuman “legal” filth Juan “The Con” Merchan and Arthur “The Moron ” EnGoron:
Thirty-four felonies, crimes so egregious, so egregious, that he [Trump] was discharged with zero jail time, fines, or restitution. I think that’s largely how the general public will interpret this. And what to say, because, that’s exactly what happened. All that, all that, for something the court ultimately determined was “nothing.”
The one case came down to basically from what as a layperson can tell, is simply the judge’s accountant disagreed with Trumps accountants on the value of Mar Lago. That’s the “crime” he’s guilty of. His accountants disagree with the judges accountant on how much it was worth years ago.
😐
Trying to find the crime there would take a pretty large magnifying glass. My reading glasses aren’t however powerful enough.
Wrong case.
And it was the judge not his ‘accountants’ who ignored the testimony from the witness to assign his own value to Mar-A-Largo.
It is worse that that.
Is there a single person here who has ever gotten a mortgage without an appraisal being done on the property first ?
The standard of law – for 2000 years have been Caveat Emptor – Each party in a free market transaction is FREE,
and it is each’s individual responsibility to verify that the value they are receiving in return for the value they are delivering is to their satisfaction.
It is NOT ever the role of the courts to decide the value of anything – they can not.
The core to economics is that “value is subjective”.
It was Deutche Bank’s responsibility to assure that the assets being mortgaged had sufficient value to provide the loan.
That is the way loans have worked for centuries.
I own a small business in the due dilligence field. While I have never done a Trump property, I have evaluated hundreds of commercial properties – including ones in NYC adjactent to and of similar value to Trump’s.
I have worked indirectly for the biggest banks in the world on refinance packages much larger than Trump’s
There is an entire army involved in assuring the value of properties that are mortgaged commericially.
There will be atleast one independent appraisal – likely more than one.
There will be a financial audit of the expenses and rents of the property.
to assure that the income from the property will be sufficient to repay the loan and meet all other operating costs.
There will be an environtal assessment to determine if there are hidden environmental issues.
There will be a property condition assessment to determine whether the property is being well maintained and what the maintanence costs will be for the life of the loan.
There will be a title search to verify that the property is owned by the party mortgaging it.
The people who do each of these are licensed professionals.
They are required to carry both general business and professional liability.
If their evaluation of a property is in error and the bank takes a loss – the Due Diligence professionals responsible for the error will be sued and their insurance will pay.
Nothing I have said above is specific to Trump properties. It is the normal due dilligence process for commercial loans.
In many instances each and every aspect of this is required by law. But even where it is not – it is the norm.
Why ? Because it is the lenders legal responsibility to assure that the asset that is security for the loan is worth sufficient to secure the loan.
But this case gets worse. Somewhat unusually Deutche Bank required a personal guarantee.
that means that if Trump were to default, not only can the bank confiscate the security and sell it to recover the outstanding principle, but should the assets prove insufficient DB can sell any other Trump assets that are not part of the security for the loan until the principle is recovered.
Banks are in the business of making money by loaning money to others. They have been doing this for thousands of years. They know what they are doing. Deutche Bank in particular is one of the most conservative banks in the world.
From the start the DB case was nonsense.
The above is only a SMALL part of the errors in the Enmoron case.
I think that you’re missing the bigger picture. Felons who make errors in spreadsheets often go on to tearing the little tags off of mattresses.
The public is also all too aware that Joe Biden issued a pardon to his son Hunter to absolve him of all of his crimes committed over the 8 years. Now, why would Biden do that if the “legal system” was fair and just? Why not just trust the legal system to do “the right thing,” especially since Hunter could easily afford to hire the best defense attorneys, or get his father’s estate to pay for them (from all those 10% Big Guy proceeds)?
The Duneocrats can’t answer these questions. Or, rather, they won’t answer them. They’ll argue that Trump will somehow rig the cases against Hunter and they have to protect against that. But, magically, when the Dunceocrats manufactured and orchestrated multiple cases against Trump, all those were, somehow, all independent and unrelated to Trump’s campaign to become President, and were all just a wild coincidence.
That’s the problem with Dunceocrats. They depend upon an incredibly stupid population to believe their scams. But, fortunately for them, American is loaded with sub-87 IQ fools who will obey anything their Dunceocrat Masters tell them to think or do.
The MGO of the law fare war was to get to have a single taking point and sink President Trump’s campaign bid for the Presidency.
That didn’t work. So they will their 15 minutes of fame. This “Rube Goldberg” case will be thrown out on appeal.
Meanwhile any corporation or business seeking to open a new location will avoid the state of New York like a plague. Tourism will suffer, and finally, when the federal government is seeking to cut funding, New York and other states that vow to resist federal law will not be given favorable consideration.
Businesses and fair minded taxpayers will consider leaving for more favorable states. The state treasury will suffer and the state will have to start cutting their budgets or raise taxes even more.
This is an unfortunate consequence of severe mismanagement and ineptitude.
Talking Point
Turley’s right here. Everyone knows I was none too fond of Trump, until the left started prosecuting him.
Really it was the spying scandal, when I found out that Clintons lawyer had hired a firm to wire tap Trump towers and offload his email and other web data in transit. See I used to work for Bell Atlantic\Nynex. I was a network engineer back in the early days and know a little about this technology (although my skillsets are as old as Moses). Still the principles are the same.
All you need is a hard wire tap any where along the path from the LAN to the telco closet. Once it hits the telco closet you need to either have tapped it before it got there or there in the closet (which is doable because those closets are “spaghetti”) because once it leaves there its a little trickier to tap the service provider, although that’s doable as well.
But its no problem at all if you can get access to the building to use a toner or other trace tool and find the circuit coming from the target office. Once you find the right wire you can either install a hardware splitter and run a lead to your capture device, (usually a protocol analyzer or “sniffer” as they’re known, these days built into some sort of capture tool usually) and you can capture everything and even impersonate his mail server so mail comes to your server (or Hilary’s basement server) and “then” travels out to the world wide web.
You can also do this at any layer 1 hub along the way or a layer 2 switch using a technique called port spanning. So the job would have been easy for anyone they could get an office for in the towers. Just rent an office and go to work. Piece of cake for a good telco hacker.
And that’s what originally got me. When I heard the attorneys spelling out what they did in layman’s terms, I knew exactly what they were talking about and it had the absolute ring of truth to it from a technical perspective that they themselves likely weren’t aware of. I knew just how easy it would be. And it all made sense. And that’s sort of when I woke up about what was being done to Trump. And suddenly I found myself taking a second look at the things he was saying.
But when these cases hit, these bogus cases especially the “Trumped up” bogus misdemeanor business records violation they resurrected and turned into a felony JUST FOR TRUMP, that was it. My eyes were open.
Wished I’d looked closer sooner but I just assumed both sides were nuts and tried staying out of it. I’m not very political and I thought they looked like two toddlers fighting. Until I realized that I’d been played, and that’s what the liberals wanted me to think. So guys like me who wouldn’t vote for them, also wouldn’t vote for Trump and just stay apathetic to it all. But they overplayed their hand. They pushed too far. These cases were so obvious that even I who has no legal training whatsoever (I worked as a security guard in the 70s if that counts 😀 ) could see the obvious and literally criminal political misuse of the courts here. Its enraging to see,. because they’re literally sabotaging our country, squandering billions of dollars and making us look like a 3rd world Jerry Springer act. And I truly think that’s what brought most of us in from the middle on Trump.
It wasn’t Trump so much. It was the damn dumb dems.
This is war!
Proclamation 80—Calling Forth the Militia and Convening an Extra Session of Congress
“On April 15, 1861,…President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling forth the state militias, to the sum of 75,000 troops, in order to suppress the rebellion. He appealed ‘to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union.’”
Proclamation 92—Warning to Rebel Sympathizers
“[On] July 17, 1862,…I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby proclaim to and warn all persons within the contemplation of said sixth section to cease participating in, aiding, countenancing, or abetting the existing rebellion or any rebellion against the Government of the United States and to return to their proper allegiance to the United States on pain of the forfeitures and seizures as within and by said sixth section provided.”
_______________________________________________________________________________
Now President Donald J. Trump MUST pull a full “Lincoln” and impose martial law, close the border, prosecute a war against the communist rebellion without a formal declaration, shred the Communist Manifesto and irrevocably extirpate all principles of communism in America, implement the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights including absolute freedom, absolute free enterprise, absolute free markets, and absolute private property including a fully constitutional dearth of taxation and regulation, eliminate the Departments of Labor, Education, Agriculture, Energy, HUD, and EPA, issue the “Deportation Proclamation” deporting all illegal aliens, past and present, including those who illegally pursued citizenship as criminal border crossers and “asylum” seekers who all made false and fraudulent claims of phantom, nonexistent persecution as foreign citizens with no U.S. rights, establish coherent voter qualifications by State legislatures per the Constitution, declare English the sole official language of the United States, suspend habeas corpus, smash opposition printing presses, networks, podcasts, social media platforms, etc., and throw anyone and everyone who opposes him in prison to Save the Union until America is placed squarely back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Turley must be proud that his columns spark bottom feeder intellectual exploration such as yours. But, my thought is you ought to be in a mental institution.
BULLSEYE!!!
Thank you so much.
Merchan is in a cult: Democrat National Cult organization. How to recognize cult behavior:
Isolation: Members may be encouraged or coerced to cut ties with family and friends outside the group, leading to social isolation, like cutting off friends and family during the holidays if they think differently about their dear leaders
Authoritarian Leadership: Cults often have unyielding leaders who demand absolute loyalty and obedience, and members may be discouraged from questioning their leader’s authority, like expulsion of members if they criticize their dear leaders, e.g. Kamala Harris, Joseph Biden, etc
Manipulation and Control: Members may experience psychological manipulation, including guilt, fear, and shame, to maintain control over their behavior and beliefs like Democrats did to mega donors once they questioned Joseph Biden’s mental capacities.
Groupthink: There may be a strong emphasis on conformity, where dissenting opinions are discouraged, and critical thinking is undermined like cancelling people, branding them Nazis, and so forth
Fear and Intimidation: Cults may use threats, both overt and subtle, to instill fear in members, making them feel that leaving the group will result in dire consequences, like “democracy dies in darkness”, “saving democracy”, “end of the nation”, etc. that Democrats and the MSM routinely did and still do
Exclusivity: Members may be led to believe that they are part of an exclusive group with special knowledge or a unique mission, fostering a sense of superiority over outsiders like Joseph Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage” and Hillary Clinton calling them “deplorables”
Rituals and Practices: Cults often have specific rituals, practices, or beliefs that members are expected to follow, which can include intense emotional experiences or public displays of loyalty like castrating the gonads of little boys and girls for their Trans craze expecting all members to conform and sacrifice their children as well
Dependency: Members may develop a psychological dependency on the group for emotional support, identity, and decision-making, making it difficult to leave much as we have seen in Left wing news organizations, e.g. Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, et al we all harassed by their employers for carrying different opinions than their employers
Altered Reality: Cults may promote a distorted view of reality, including conspiracy theories or apocalyptic beliefs, which can further entrench members in the group like Joyless Reid, Nicole Wallace, Washington Post columnists, et al routinely show
Exploitation: Members may be exploited for their labor, finances, or personal relationships, often under the guise of contributing to the group’s mission like Democrats using and abusing minorities for their selfish financial gain
These and other examples show that Judge Merchan is in a cult: Democrat National Cult organization.
The Democrat voting base is made up of the brainwashed/brain dead members of the Democrat Party cult.
Everyone else has woken up and escaped the madness.
It cannot be said enough: JOE BIDEN IS A PIECE OF SH*T.
JOE BIDEN IS A POS
JOE BIDEN IS A POS
JOE BIDEN IS A POS
As a never-Trumper, knowing how angry and triggered you are makes my day. Thanks for putting a smile on my face!
That’s not what we usually see on your face.
As a never-Trumper, knowing how angry and triggered you are makes my day. Thanks for putting a smile on my face!
Nobody has seen you smile since Wyoming voters drove a stake through the heart of your political career, Liz Cheney.
Will you still have that ghoulish grin on your face when you don your black funeral garb to watch Trump be inaugurated into his second term in office, Liz?
You must be a brainwashed/brain dead member of the Democrat Party cult.
It’s not too late to get out.
If this is your idea of happiness – I am very sorry for you.
Turley only barely touches on this – but this case was decided by the public long ago.
The Lawfare in NYC is probably the single most decisive factor in Trump’s victory.
Trump was polling significantly behind Biden before this nonsense started.
As it progressed most people saw it for what it was – lawlessness.
Despite Trump’s ranting – these cases have not hurt him. They have damaged those of you on the left.
This will harm NYS and NYC.
Business is relatively simple – the higher the risk the higher the profit margin necescary to justify that risk.
Walmarts and grocery stores have very low profit margins – because they are very low risk.
Business in NY will be more expensive because of this.
The message of these cases is piss off the powers that be in NY, and they will try to destroy you.
There is no business loan in NY that James and Judge EnMoron could not prosecute based on their idiotic application of the law. There is no set of financial records of any business in NY that would not have multiple felony counts under the Bragg/Merchan standard where payments to a lawyer catagorized as a business expense constitute a crime.
People will still do business in NY – though not likely the same people.
This type of legal nonsense discourages honest businesses operating on low margins and encourages less honest businesses even criminals, operating on higher margins.
Before these cases we saw the financial markets migrating to Miami and London from NYC – since that process has increased.
But why only a “piece.” How did you make that determination? Couldn’t Biden be the whole thing and not merely “a piece”?