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Anyone can be falsely accused of a crime. The claim is based on the right to a fair trial.
Unfortunately, the Manhattan trial of former President Donald Trump bears no resemblance to that cherished constitutional promise. Almost nothing during this five-week trial can be described as remotely fair.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg's absurd case made a mockery of our legal system. Judge Juan Merchán aggravated the injustice by dismantling the principles of due process that every defendant deserves. His court rulings consistently favored the prosecution and prevented Trump's lawyers from presenting a genuine defense that would be permitted in any other courtroom.
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Working together, Bragg and Merchan demonstrated that they have little regard for the rule of law or the rights of the accused. This is not an impartial court. It is an Orwellian show trial with a predetermined outcome. There is no presumption of innocence, only expectation of guilt.
The impact of this case goes far beyond the verdict, whatever it may be. Untold damage has been inflicted on a once respected institution: our judiciary. The prosecutor's corrupt actions and the judge's transparent bias constitute moral failures that will inevitably breed cynicism about democratic government.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg's absurd case made a mockery of our legal system. Judge Juan Merchán aggravated the injustice by dismantling the principles of due process that every defendant deserves.
Merchan's anti-Trump bias is particularly insidious. It was on full display when the defense called to the stand Robert Costello, who was once an attorney for the district attorney's star witness, Michael Cohen. Recall that the judge allowed both Cohen and another prosecution witness, former porn star Stormy Daniels, unlimited freedom to criticize Trump in court. Merchan enthusiastically welcomed gratuitous, sordid details and outright speculation designed to prejudice the jury.
But when Costello was sworn in and began accurately portraying his former client as a con man who lied to the jury about the core issues of the case, the judge shut him down faster than a New York minute. While Cohen and Daniels were given free rein to lash out at Trump with endless narratives, Costello was muffled by the judge who nearly shoved a sock in his mouth.
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In one ignominious moment, Merchan became so unhinged that he threatened to imprison the witness for looking at him the wrong way. “Are you staring at me right now?” the egomaniacal judge fumed. It was so melodramatic that even the average bully would blush with embarrassment.
Without limits, the judge authorized Cohen to misinterpret federal campaign laws about which he has no knowledge or experience. He repeatedly informed the jury that the payments to Daniels violated the law. But Merchán would not allow the defense to call a qualified expert — the former head of the Federal Electoral Commission — to adequately explain to the jury the true meaning of the electoral statutes and how Daniel's confidentiality agreement did not qualify as an illegal campaign contribution. .
Apparently, Merchan has never bothered to read the rules of evidence in New York (Rule 7.01). an expert can No You will be prevented from offering an opinion on a key issue in the case if it is beyond the jury's knowledge and could help you. Here, the campaign finance statutes are so complex and convoluted that they border on the incomprehensible.
Without expert testimony, jurors will have to make unfounded guesses. Which is precisely what Bragg and Merchan have.
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Throughout the trial, the judge allowed the prosecution to conceal the so-called “mystery crime” that somehow elevates an expired misdemeanor to criminal conduct. So here we are at the end of the trial, both sides have rested their respective cases and closing arguments will begin next Tuesday. However, we are no closer to understanding what underlying crime Trump allegedly committed. Thats false.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg has fed the jury a litany of lies and deceptions that were supported by Presiding Judge Juan Merchán. Together, they have trampled the rights of the accused through the tyranny of mendacity and unbridled power.
No capable or impartial judge would have allowed such an egregious violation of the Sixth Amendment. Every accused has the fundamental right “to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation” against him. But Bragg never fulfilled that constitutional guarantee. Worse yet, Merchan let him get away with it, just as he allowed his local court to 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 criticized the defendant on social media during the pendency of the trial. Trump was gagged but Cohen was not. He tries to make sense of it. You can not.
Merchan was not willing to tolerate objectivity or sanction justice in his fiefdom. The concept of equal conditions was relegated to a bad joke. Instead, Bragg and Merchan conspired to poison the trial by indoctrinating the jury with false information and false testimony. At every turn, they attempted to brainwash the panel into believing that criminal activity was occurring despite evidence to the contrary.
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In reality, prosecutors have failed to meet any of the essential elements of the alleged crimes in the indictment. There is no credible evidence that Trump designed or even knew of accounting records that were not false at all. There is also no plausible evidence that he intentionally violated campaign laws that were not violations at all. Where is the fraud that prosecutors argued 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 farce.
This case has reasonable doubt written all over it. But the jury has been handed a litany of lies and deceptions by District Attorney Alvin Bragg that were supported by Presiding Judge Juan Merchán. Together, they have trampled the rights of the accused through the tyranny of mendacity and unbridled power.
This is exactly what the American statesman, Senator J. William Fulbright, so memorably warned when he said: “When public men give themselves over to abuse, when they deny others a fair trial, when they resort to innuendo and innuendo, to slander , scandal and suspicion, then our democratic society is outraged and democracy disconcerted”.
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Fulbright was not prophetic. He knew from experience that unscrupulous men endowed with unbridled power are capable of committing unusual acts of corruption. Only strength of character can resist temptation.
Incorruptibility may be rare, but it is sadly absent within this Manhattan courtroom.
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