Theatre of the Absurd:  Judge Merchan Sentences Trump not to be Sentenced

Judge [Juan Merchan] sentences Trump to unconditional discharge, no punishment in hush money conviction

                                                The Hill, Jan. 10, 2025

Once considered the premier legal system in the country, figures like New York AG Letitia James, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Justices Arthur Engoron and Juan Merchan have … weaponized for political purposes. … The case has long been denounced by objective legal observers, including intense Trump critics, as a legal absurdity. Even CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig denounced the case as legally flawed and unprecedented while Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., called it total “b—s–t.” … Trump will walk away from this trial and into the White House in less than two weeks, but the New York system will walk into infamy after this day.

GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley, 1/10/25

[T]here is still a trophy to go with [Merchan’s] trophy-kill case. The sentence will formally label the president-elect [Donald Trump] a convicted felon. It will be punishment by soundbite [emphasis added].  It will allow a media mantra that Trump is the first convicted felon to be sworn into office.

Jonathan Turley, 1/10/25

Anyone who is intelligent, thoughtful and objective knows that 34 times zero equals zero.  There are 34 non-crimes [Trump] was convicted of.  … How do you convert a non-misdemeanour barred by the statute of limitations into a felony by going into the mind and speculating what the intent was [and then multiplying the result by 34]?  This is worse than Stalin … Making up a crime from scratch is even worse [than Stalin] and if they can do it to Trump, they can do it to you. … This will do terrible [damage] to our legal system …

                        Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, 1/10/25

[Despite what the media says, Trump] wasn’t sentenced.  You’re not sentenced when the judge says “I hereby sentence you not to be sentenced.” … [It’s] a distortion of our legal system. … It’s not a sentence and he’s not a convicted felon. … I would no more call him a convicted felon than I would call someone convicted in the Soviet Union back in the 1950’s or convicted today in Iran a convicted felon.  This is not a legitimate case. There is no crime.  You can’t be a convicted felon when you have been charged with a misdemeanour [beyond] the statute of limitations that they magically resurrected and turned into a felony … It will be reversed on appeal. 

Alan Dershowitz, 1/10/25

            Since, as Trump’s 2024 historic election victory, winning all 7 swing states and the popular vote as well, shows, the American people never bought the pathetic  “lawfare” brought by what’s left of the Democrat Party against Trump.   One would think, therefore, that Columbian (Bogota) born “Judge” Merchan, presiding over the lone “conviction” on a silly “hush money” case over money paid to a porn star for her silence, would, citing the clear SCOTUS ruling on presidential immunity, drop the fake case and go home, silently resolving not to abuse the legal system for political purposes in future (Law School 101 stuff).  But you would, in our “age of rage,” be wrong.  Instead, perhaps auditioning for a skit on Saturday Night Live, comrade Merchan decided, a week before Trump assumes the presidency, to sentence Trump not to be punished at all, that is, sentence him not to be sentenced – a fitting end to this joke of a case. 

            The point of this sorry spectacle is, of course, to humiliate Trump (he cannot own a gun and must surrender a DNA sample) and give what’s left of the Democrat party and our alleged “news” media to have a “label” or a “soundbite”, that is, to call Trump a “convicted felon” from the beginning of his term in office.  The Democrat “News”-media Colluders (or DNC) haven’t been sweating and hyperventilating to this degree since the heyday of their Trump-Russia collusion hoax that did so much damage to our country.   Unfortunately, that is not the proper purpose of our legal system.   Indeed, it is the inverse of it.

To be sure, Trump being sentenced to not being sentenced is not what the DNC had in mind when they initiated this latest charade, but, at least, it will give them the opportunity to call Trump names, one of the few skills that the DNC, along with 1^st graders, still retains in abundance, during much of his coming term in office.  The hope, by the self-described “save our democracy” Party, is that this will enable them to damage the Trump agenda that the American people just voted for in the 2024 democratic elections.

            Unfortunately, the fake sentence not to be sentenced handed down by comrade Merchan might have consequences other than enabling more pathetic Democrat Party name calling at home.  Since many countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, South Africa, Japan, China and possibly Russia will not permit a convicted felon to enter their countries, it is possible that Trump’s official duties as US president will be damaged by Merchan’s “gamesmanship”.  One can imagine that South Africa or Brazil might use Trump’s fake conviction to prevent him from entering their countries and negotiating a deal that would help minority people around the world.  Alternatively, one can imagine that Russia or China might use Trump’s fake conviction, first, as a stick with which to beat him and embarrass the United States on the world stage, and, second, might even use it as an excuse to prevent Trump from entering their countries in order to negotiate a deal to end wars or violence around the world.  In brief, comrade Merchan has helped America’s enemies to get their dangerous ways during the next few years.  But he and what’s left of the DNC are not thinking about any of that.  As usual, they are only thinking about getting back into the real money and, what they really live for, require the power to push innocent people around.

The “Supreme” Court (SCOTUS) was considering taking an expedited appeal in this case, circumventing the corrupt partisan New York appellate courts, in order to overturn the conviction right now and, shocker, allow Trump to begin, unimpeded, enacting the agenda for which he was elected by the peasants (remember them?).  However, Dershowitz (1/10/25) points out that comrade Merchan “outsmarted SCOTUS by “playing” a little “trick” on them,

Merchan decided to outsmart [SCOTUS into not taking Trump’s expedited appeal of the NY “Hush Money” case].   He deliberately announced in advance [which I have never in my legal career seen before] that he wouldn’t send [Trump] to jail in order to [convince] SCOTUS not to take the case [at this time].  So, SCOTUS basically said, “Since he’s not going to jail now, we can wait until the appeal comes up. … Merchan played a trick on [SCOTUS] in Court and [they] fell for it.  It’s part of the gamesmanship that’s been part of the prosecution’s arsenal armament since the beginning of this case that should never have been brought.

That is, comrade Merchan announced in advance that he would not sentence Trump to any punishment, thereby allowing enough of the weaker Republican appointees (the usual suspects) to conclude that there no pressing reason not to let the lengthy slow appellate process play out, thereby permitting the DNC to interfere in Trump’s presidency again.

            Congratulations SCOTUS!