Some of us have expressed frustration with the ridiculous delay in the appellate court review of the absurd civil judgment against Donald Trump. It appears to have entered some judicial black hole where neither light nor an opinion can escape. Now, the Wall Street Journal claims that it is due to a deeply divided panel in a column titled “Court Split Leaves Trump’s Civil Fraud Appeal Stuck in Slow Lane.”
This should not be a close case and certainly should not take this long. The case against Trump was raw lawfare, and the entire trial by Justice Arthur Engoron made a mockery of the court system, particularly his ridiculous half-a-billion-dollar judgment.
Yet, weeks turned into months and then into years as the appellate court seemed lost in navel-gazing. There was also a concern over passive-aggressive delays; the long appeal is not only preventing Trump from moving this case toward the Supreme Court but keeps him trapped in an appellate amber.
Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting:
A five-justice panel has yet to render a decision nearly a year after taking up the case, leaving him and his business in limbo. Behind the scenes, members of the panel have been divided, and three of them have been writing opinions, according to people familiar with the matter. It couldn’t be determined how they are split. Justices do occasionally shift their positions, and the number of opinions could change, the people said.
…
The panel hearing the Trump appeal includes four judges appointed by Democratic governors and one Republican appointee, David Friedman, who is regarded as among the most conservative of the court’s 21 members. The court’s presiding justice, Renwick, also on the panel, is viewed as a stalwart liberal who has an institutional interest in seeking consensus and guarding the court’s reputation.
It is not a good thing to see a leak of this kind from any court. The United States Supreme Court was rocked by the leaking of a draft opinion of the Dobbs decision just a few years ago. No one was ever prosecuted for the leak.
It is distressing to hear that some of these judges may be striving to preserve this nonsensical opinion where Trump was hit with half a billion dollars in a case where no one lost money and the banks wanted renewed business with his company. Affirming the decision would be the final nail in the coffin for the New York legal system, which was turned into a farce by New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Engoron.
Even if it is true that the judges have hopelessly fractured, they could do us all a favor and allow the case to proceed toward more competent jurists and final resolution.
There is certainly no rush by these appellate judges to right any wrong done to Trump, who appears, again, to fall into a special category of persona non grata in the New York legal system. This appellate panel appears content to leave Trump twisting in the wind as it contemplates what to do with a defendant who garners little sympathy from its members.
Most appeals are measured in months; this seems measured in millennia. Even with the notoriously slow New York legal system, the pendency of this appeal is becoming itself a controversy.
It is often said that justice delayed is justice denied. However, delayed and denied justice for Trump appears to be a bedrock principle of the New York justice system.
Didn’t candidate Hillary Clinton engage in same kind of ‘accounting error’ when she put the cost of their dirty campaign hit piece, the ‘Steele Dossier,’ in the wrong column on their campaign forms?
And then the powers-that-be said, oops, Hillary, you bad girl, you and your dirty campaign broke some ‘laws’ there, but hey, the press will ignore this ‘crime’ and the fake news will help you to keep it all under wraps, and then Hillary will very quietly pay an $8k fine and then POOF! The whole scandal goes away, just like that!
But if Trump’s accountants ‘allegedly’ do something similar, where the wrong column is checked with regard to payment made to Stormy Daniels? Hoo boy, the Soros DA said hey Trump! you gonna get the book thrown at you, because no one is above the law (except every Democrat)! And we gonna prosecute Trump to the hilt, drag his a$$ into court to force him off the trail sitting in couort during his presidential campaign…..then force him to pay obscene fines, and then make sure the corrupt judges helps the corrupt DA turn one ‘alleged’ tiny little “misdemeanor” accounting error into not one…..not two…..not three…..but 34 effin felonies. Like, magic!
Yes sir, that Judge Juan Merchan sure did nothing wrong! He was only following THE LAW where it led him! Wink wink.
GFY Democrats. You all are a bunch of scumbag criminals. The Democrat party is nothing more than a criminal operation.
And then lil Georgie Slopadopalous purposely and maliciously slandered Trump by repeating over and over, on the air, on is “fake news” show, that Trump is a “rapist” ….bc another corrupt lying NY judge and court case found Trump liable for what?
That at the height of his fame, he “raped” an ugly-a$$ lunatic in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman? Where there was NO evidence and no witnesses and the alleged “victim” could not even recall what year it happened? Oh puhlease.
Holy crap these people are lying pychopaths. Every single one of them. From Slopadopalous to Big Tush James to Fat Albert the Soros DA to the insane judge Engomoron and the utterly corrupt POS Juan Merchan and his scummy daughter who cashed in the entire trial.
THOSE are the CRIMINALS who should be sent to PRISON. The New York “justice” system collapsed a long time ago. There is no rule of law in New York! Wake up you duma$$ democrats who believe the utter shlit shoveled into your weak brainwashed brains by the fake news. Y’all are freakin stupid.
There will be no return to justice until and unless these ‘officers of the court’ are held to the highest standards of punishment for thier lawlessness, their fraud, their corruption. Because of their postions they should have the book thrown at them and get the MAXIMUM punishment, disbarment, the maximum prison sentence, doing HARD TIME for the rest of their despicable lives. Period. Nothing less will restore the balance of so-called ‘justice.’ MAKE THESE CRIMINALS PAY THE FULL PRICE for their CORRUPTION.
And yes, this includes Commie Traitor John Brennan, James psycopath Comey, Schiff the Pathological Liar, Strzok the freak, McCabe the sociopath, and on and on the list goes. LOCK THEM ALL UP. Hillary should have been prosecuted a long time ago. Maybe now justice will be served? These are BAD PEOPLE. Good riddance to them all.