Free Republic

The house always wins. That’s what matters—fairness, impartiality, the very idea of a non-partisan application of the law be damned. Welcome to the end of the republic. I think that it was the great Miranda Devine, she of the “laptop from hell” fame, who first called the world’s attention to the latest wrinkle in the long-running “Get Trump” extravaganza in New York. Anyway, I first heard about it from her post on X Friday. “If this is legit,” she wrote, commenting on a letter purportedly from Acting Justice Juan Merchan to Donald Trump’s Counsel and the Manhattan DA’s office, “it...

There’s just something very sketchy about this public release of information from Judge Merchan in New York City. Merchan doesn’t have an integrity bone and the comment he is bringing attention toward is innocuous and random. However, Merchan could be trying to get Trump to violate the gag order aspect and talk about jurors; thereby making the sentencing worse. According to information Merchan is providing the lawyers in the Trump case, a comment was made on the court’s FaceBook page indicating one of the jurors said the Trump guilty verdict was predetermined. [SOURCE] “My cousin is a juror and says...

Dear Counsel: Today, the Court became aware of a comment that was posted on the Unified Court System's public Facebook page and which I now bring to your attention. In the comment, the user, "Michael Anderson," states: "My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted...Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!!" The comment, now labeled as one week old, responded to a routine UCS notice, posted on May 29, 2024, regarding oral arguments in the Fourth Department of the Appellate Division unrelated to this proceeding.

BREAKING: NY Judge Merchan Informs Lawyers of ‘My Cousin is a Juror, Trump is Getting Convicted’ Facebook Post Left on NY Court Page, Pre-Verdict.In a new development in Trump’s Manhattan “hush money” case, Justice Merchan has communicated to the involved parties about an incident involving a comment left on the court system’s Facebook page. The comment, left on May 29, one day prior to Trump’s conviction, reads: “My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted 🎉 Thank you folks for all your hard work!!!! ❤️”The fact that the judge has written to the involved parties may indicate...

For a variety of reasons, the United States Supreme Court has a constitutional obligation to take up President Trump’s criminal case following his unlawful conviction in New York state court. First and foremost, federal issues permeate this case. While it was never a case that should have been brought in any court in the first place, this case especially should not have been brought in state court, where jurisdiction patently does not exist. The driving legal issue was purportedly a campaign finance law violation which fell within the gamut of the Federal Election Commission. Bragg flimsily paired that charge with...

Democratic Manhattan District Alvin Bragg’s office defended on Wednesday keeping former President Donald Trump under his gag order, requesting that it stay in place at least through Trump’s sentencing hearing in late July and any post-trial motions. Trump attorney’s asked Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday to lift the order, writing in a letter that the “concerns articulated by the government and the Court do not justify restrictions on the First Amendment rights of President Trump” now that the trial has concluded. Prosecutors disagreed, responding that the order was intended to protect more than just the trial proceedings. “As the People...

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is backed by Soros, is now under fire for allegedly leaking sensitive sentencing information about former President Donald Trump to the far-left media. In the wake of a trial widely criticized as a sham, where Trump was convicted on all 34 felony charges in a ‘hush money’ scandal, sources suggest that DA Bragg’s office may recommend Trump serve a year at the notorious Rikers Island. Judge Merchan told jurors they did not have to agree on a crime—a practice unheard of in US history. The jury only had to agree that...

If former President Trump wins in November, top supporters will push him to investigate, prosecute — and even try to imprison — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), who won Trump's conviction in the hush-money case. "Of course [Bragg] should be — and will be — jailed," Steve Bannon, one of the top voices of the MAGA movement, told us — saying for the record what many Trump supporters are privately plotting. Why it matters: This column has reported extensively about all the norms Trump plans to shatter if returned to the White House. Nowhere would that be truer than...

America Has Its First Show TrialYou don't have to be a Trump supporter to recognize the trial was a sham.To understand the damage done by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Judge Juan Merchan, and the Manhattan jury in the Donald Trump corporate records trial, one must first understand the most important rule of modern life: Everything the left touches, it destroys.The Justice Department and the American legal system are only the most immediate examples.Here are 25 other examples:1. Universities. 2. High schools. 3. Elementary schools. 4. Children’s innocence. 5. Marriage and family. 6. Children who say they are the other...

Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Tuesday asked a New York judge to lift the gag order imposed on him in the criminal hush money case, citing his opponent, President Joe Biden‘s 2024 election campaign gloating over his guilty verdict. Trump has been under a gag order since April that bars him from making comments about the jury that presided over the weekslong trial as well as specific witnesses in the case, family members of prosecutors, and the daughter of presiding Judge Juan Merchan. His defense lawyers pointed to specific moments last week in which the Biden campaign used...

Last Thursday, in a courtroom in Manhattan that voted against him 88-12% in 2020, a jury, heavily persuaded by a judge, who contributed to Joe Biden in 2020, convicted President Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsification of business records.The case concerns payments that were made to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen in 2017. Cohen claimed the payments were reimbursement for a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to ensure her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with President Trump.Trump contended that he never had a sexual liaison with Daniels and that there was nothing illegal about his...

When the main casualty is the rule of law itself.On May 30th, a Manhattan jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of thirty-four jerry-rigged felony charges brought against Mr. Trump by the progressive Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. The fix was in, and the main casualty was the rule of law itself.District Attorney Bragg abused his prosecutorial powers by targeting Mr. Trump personally, as he had promised to do when he ran for office, and then coming up with concocted felony offenses to charge him with. The Trump-hating district attorney magically alchemized a statute of limitations-barred misdemeanor of falsifying business...

House Speaker Mike Johnson joined Fox Sunday to discuss House Republicans’ plans to investigate Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Special Counsel Jack Smith for targeting political opponents. It sounds like just more words from Speaker Johnson. We want to see action! Shannon Bream: Now, I want to ask you about the verdict. Clearly, you think it’s a travesty, as many people do. And I think having watched the trial, there are many grounds, fertile territory for the Trump team to use on appeal, but that’s going to take time. In the meantime, there are a number of Republicans out there...

Last Thursday, in a courtroom in Manhattan that voted against him 88-12% in 2020, a jury, heavily persuaded by a judge, who contributed to Joe Biden in 2020, convicted President Donald Trump on 34 counts of falsification of business records. The case concerns payments that were made to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen in 2017. Cohen claimed the payments were reimbursement for a $130,000 payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels to ensure her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with President Trump.

Yo-Yo Note: Longish read but very good from someone who is NOT a MAGA person.Ever since Donald Trump emerged as a presidential contender nine years ago, America’s most esteemed scholars and journalists have argued that he was violating democratic norms. Trump, they said, was ignoring the stabilizing, unwritten rules and values of American politics. This was evident in his vulgar language, vilification of immigrants, criticisms of the press, lack of cooperation with the intelligence community, and refusal to accept the 2020 election results.But the Democrats’ relentless effort to imprison Trump has undermined the rule of law, faith in the criminal...

As the dust starts to settle on Trump’s conviction newly-minted status as an Outlaw President, legal scholars are starting to weigh in on the severe problems with Alvin Bragg’s case. First up, Ed Whelan passes on this this piece by Mr. Elie Honig, explaining some of the problems with the conviction: Trump's superpower is the ability to bring out the worst in both his supporters and his opponents. Bragg's prosecution sure strikes me as blatant example of latter, for reasons CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig spells out in this powerful piece. https://t.co/y6CGA6Ald9 — Ed Whelan (@EdWhelanEPPC) May 31, 2024...

Former Commissioner of the Federal Elections Commission, Brad Smith, a preeminent expert on campaign finance law has taken to social media to lash out against the Manhattan trial that led to the conviction of former President Donald Trump. Judge Juan Merchan had prevented Trump’s defense team from seating Smith as a witness or even submitting his testimony to the jury. Smith had planned on testifying that Donald Trump’s filing of a “hush money” payment as a “legal expense” was not a crime against federal elections law. Indeed, federal prosecutors had passed up on the case prior to Alvin Bragg, the...

Just before the jury returned a guilty verdict in corrupt Judge Juan Merchan’s kangaroo court, without even specifying what crime President Trump committed, Fox News host Jesse Watters highlighted serious concerns about communist New York Judge Juan Merchan. Watters: There’s something very fishy about how Judge Mershon came to preside over this case. There are 24 sitting judges who were supposed to be randomly selected from to take this case. Judge Merchan wasn’t even on the list of judges. He’s an acting judge. And he’s not just a Biden donor. Judge Merchan donated to the Progressive Turnout Project and to...

1. Unconstitutional Gag Order that prevented President Trump from criticizing the trial, exposing the many conflicts that should have forced the judge to recuse himself, and the railroading of his fundamental due process rights. 2. Judge Merchan’s many, many conflicts of interests – all of which were disqualifying. His daughter, Loren Merchan, is President of Authentic Campaigns, a political consulting firm that hires the likes of the Biden-Harris Campaign, Adam Schiff, Ilhan Omar, and many other far left Democratic lawmakers. Loren’s firm has made tens of millions off these clients – Juan Merchan, through his daughter, had a direct financial...

The judge who presided over Donald Trump’s fraud case closed off many avenues of appeal, leaving him few ways to escape his felony conviction