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Anyone can be falsely accused of a crime. The justification rests on the right to a fair trial.
Unfortunately, the Manhattan trial former president Donald Trump bears no resemblance to this precious constitutional promise. Almost nothing during this five-week trial could be described as fair.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s absurd case has made a mockery of our legal system. Judge Juan Merchan compounded the injustice by dismantling the principles of due process that every defendant deserves. His court decisions have consistently favored the prosecution and prevented Trump’s lawyers from presenting a good faith defense that would be allowed in any other courtroom.
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Working in tandem, Bragg and Merchan proved they had little respect for the rule of law or the rights of the accused. This is not an impartial tribunal. It’s an Orwellian show trial with a predetermined outcome. There is no presumption of innocence, only the expectation of guilt.
The impact of this case goes far beyond whatever the verdict may be. Incalculable damage has been inflicted on a once-respected institution, our justice system. The prosecutor’s corrupt actions and the judge’s obvious biases constitute moral failings that will inevitably breed cynicism toward democratic government.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s absurd case has made a mockery of our legal system. Judge Juan Merchan compounded the injustice by dismantling the principles of due process that every defendant deserves.
Merchan’s anti-Trump bias is particularly insidious. This was on full display when the defense took the stand, Robert Costellowho has already been a lawyer for the The prosecutor’s star witness, Michael Cohen. Recall that the judge gave Cohen and another prosecution witness, ex-porn star Stormy Daniels, unlimited latitude to trash Trump in court. The gratuitous, sordid details and rank speculation intended to harm the jury were met with impatience by Merchan.
But when Costello took the oath and began accurately portraying his former client as a crook who had lied to the jury about crucial issues in the case, the judge had him arrested faster than a New York minute. While Cohen and Daniels had carte blanche to criticize Trump with endless stories, Costello was stifled by the judge who almost stuffed a sock in his mouth.
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In one ignominious moment, Merchan became so unhinged that he threatened to jail the witness for looking at him the wrong way. “Are you looking down on me right now?” fumes the egocentric judge. It was so melodramatic that even an average thug would blush with embarrassment.
Without limits, Cohen was empowered by the judge to misinterpret federal campaign laws of which he has no knowledge or expertise. He repeatedly informed the jury that the payments made to Daniels violated the law. But Merchan did not allow the defense to call a qualified expert – the former head of the Federal Election Commission— to properly explain to the jury the true meaning of the election statutes and how Daniel’s nondisclosure agreement was not considered an illegal campaign contribution.
Apparently, Merchan never bothered to read the New York Rules of Evidence (Rule 7.01). An expert can not be precluded from giving an opinion on an ultimate issue in the case if it is beyond the knowledge of the jury and could assist them. Here, campaign finance laws are so complex and convoluted that they border on the incomprehensible.
Without the expert’s testimony, jurors will now be forced to make an uninformed guess. This is precisely what Bragg and Merchan are counting on.
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Throughout the trial, the judge allowed the prosecution to conceal the so-called “mystery crime” that somehow elevated an expired misdemeanor to criminal conduct. So here we are at the end of the trial, both sides have concluded their respective arguments and closing arguments are scheduled to begin next Tuesday. Yet we are no closer to understanding what underlying crime Trump is alleged to have committed. It’s a joke.
The jury was fed a litany of lies and deceptions from District Attorney Alvin Bragg that were approved by Presiding Judge Juan Merchan. Together, they trampled on the rights of the accused through the tyranny of lies and unchecked power.
No competent or impartial judge would have allowed such a blatant violation of the Sixth Amendment. Every defendant has the fundamental right “to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation” brought against him. But Bragg never respected this constitutional guarantee. Worse yet, Merchan let him get away with it – the same way he let his local court be misused to enforce a federal law over which he has no authority or jurisdiction.
All of this is consistent with a judge blatantly violating Trump’s free speech rights by preventing him from commenting on Cohen while the latter was trashing the defendant on social media during the trial. Trump was gagged, but Cohen was not. Try to make sense of this. You can not.
Merchan was not prepared to tolerate objectivity or sanction fairness in his stronghold. The concept of a level playing field has been relegated to the status of a bad joke. Instead, Bragg and Merchan colluded to poison the trial by indoctrinating the jury with false information and false testimony. At every point, they attempted to make the panel believe that criminal activity was taking place despite evidence to the contrary.
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In reality, none of the essential elements of the crimes alleged in the indictment have been satisfied by prosecutors. There is no credible evidence that Trump arranged or even knew about accounting entries that were not at all false. Nor is there any plausible evidence that he willfully violated election laws that did not constitute violations at all. Where is the fraud prosecutors mentioned in their opening statement? Like Bigfoot, he is a fictional missing link in the case.
This has always been a trial in search of an imaginary crime and a shameful charade.
This matter is surrounded by reasonable doubts. But the jury was fed a litany of lies and deception from District Attorney Alvin Bragg which were approved by Presiding Judge Juan Merchan. Together, they trampled on the rights of the accused through the tyranny of lies and unchecked power.
This is exactly what American statesman Senator J. William Fulbright so memorably warned about when he said: “When public men engage in abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and innuendo, defamation, scandal and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged and democracy is baffled. »
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Fulbright was not prescient. He knew from experience that unscrupulous men with unbridled power are capable of committing uncommon acts of corruption. Only strength of character can resist temptation.
Incorruptibility may be rare, but it is unfortunately absent within this Manhattan Courtroom.
