Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg on Tuesday kicked the can one week on the so-called “Trump hush money” case; their next step should be to void the whole thing.
In a better world, they’d apologize for ever entertaining it, admit it was always bogus, toss the verdicts and promise never to abuse the law this way again.
Even without the Supreme Court ruling that calls much of it into question, the legal flaws were huge: The charges relied on 1) finding Trump had committed some other crime that no authority ever charged, and 2) using that to morph bookkeeping moves that at most would be a misdemeanor (on which the statute of limitations had already lapsed) into a felony.
Not to mention how it was about actions in 2017 somehow interfering in the 2016 election.
Plus, Merchan told the jurors to make up their own individual minds as to which of three different federal (or state!) violations Trump had committed, with no need to even agree on what “crime” he’d committed.
The only real point ever was to get a guilty verdict to license Democrats to spend the campaign damning Trump as a “convicted felon” — though it failed to convince enough voters to stop him from winning bigly last Tuesday.
If Merchan and Bragg try to keep it up, they’re likely to see the case tossed on appeal anyway, and find themselves at war with the incoming president of the United States.
Here are the next steps for Trump's sentencing in his 'hush money' case:
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to delay President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his “hush money” case — here’s what happens next:
- Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan will have to issue a ruling to approve pausing Trump’s sentencing, which had been scheduled for Nov. 26.
- Trump’s sentencing date has already been pushed back twice since a jury convicted him in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
- The sentencing schedule issue could be moot if Merchan decides to scrap the conviction entirely.
- Merchan last week delayed ruling on a bid by Trump’s attorneys for the guilty verdict to be overturned based on July’s US Supreme Court ruling immunizing a president for “official acts” taken in office.
- Prosecutors counter that the high court’s ruling has “no basis” in the case.
- Merchan — who hasn’t said when he’ll issue a decision — could also decide to wait until a federal appeals court rules on a separate effort by Trump to move the case out of court.
The prudent course is to drop the whole thing; to save face, they can blame the Supremes for changing the rules on them and Bragg can even posture that he’s saving taxpayer money by not pursuing a case that the high court has made too hard to win.
Whatever: End this farce now, gents, before you embarrass yourselves and the whole city any further.
