JONATHAN TURLEY: Trump’s trial shows NY couldn’t handle the truth. The sentence rams it home
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By the judgment of Donald Trump On Friday, the final verdict was handed down in the criminal trial of the newly elected president in New York. The verdict is not one that resulted in no jail time or probation for the future president. Acting Judge Juan Merchan brought down the gavel on the New York legal system as a whole.
Once considered the most important legal system in the country, figures like New York Attorney General Letitia JamesManhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Judges Arthur F. Engoron and Juan Merchan caused the system to be weaponized for political purposes. Trump will walk away from this trial and into the White House in less than two weeks, but the New York system will go down in shame after this day.
Objective legal observers, including harsh Trump critics, have long denounced the case as a legal absurdity. Even CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig blasted the case as legally flawed and unprecedented, while Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., simply called it total “bst.”
It is a case based on wrongdoing. Bragg took a long-dead work and brought it back to life with a new and unsubstantiated theory. By using federal misdemeanors that were never charged, let alone tried, Bragg turned the misdemeanor into dozens of felonies and actually tried Trump on federal misdemeanors.
Merchan not only allowed these allegations to go to trial, but added layers of reversible error in an effort to destroy Trump at all costs. This is why the liberal media and many New Yorkers adored him. However, Trump still managed to collect 3.6 million New York votes or 42.7 percent Elections 2024. After all the laws and all the advantages (including a heavily biased media and a bigger war chest), Vice President Kamala Harris lost hundreds of thousands of votes in 2024 compared to Joe Biden just four years earlier.
Many polls have shown that the public sees the Manhattan criminal case as it is: raw law targeting a leading political opponent. The elections themselves acted as the biggest verdict in history because the citizens rejected the political, legal and media establishment in one of the most historic elections in our country.
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New York’s court system will now have a chance to redeem itself, but few are holding their breath. An appeals court still hasn’t ruled on an appeal of Attorney General Lettia James’ equally absurd civil suit against Trump. Despite the judges expressing skepticism about Endoron’s use of the law to impose a grotesque $455 million in penalties and interest, we’re still waiting for a decision.
Most are waiting for this criminal case to escape the maelstrom of the New York court system. With this appeal, this cart of correctable errors will finally stop before the Supreme Court itself.
With his ruling Thursday night, the circumstances for the decision couldn’t be better for Trump. The Supreme Court he has again shown that he has shown restraint and independence in these cases. In response to the ruling, Trump struck the perfect note Thursday night and declined to criticize the Court, saying “this is far from over and I respect the court’s opinion.”
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Final sentence on Friday morning from Judge Merchan reflects the lack of seriousness in the case. It was more inflated than a Goodyear balloon, inflated with hot anger and rhetoric. The punishment was a pin prick which showed the huge gap in this case.
The verdict has arrived. The New York legal system held it against itself.
