‘Completely illegal, psychotic’: Trump goes nuclear on Merchan’s hush-money ruling

President-elect Donald Trump has delivered a stunningly harsh verdict on a decision by a New York judge to try to keep a criminal case against Trump going.

It was an obstinate Juan Merchan, a judge who donated to Democrat political candidates and whose daughter was advising Democrat candidates, making money off of her father’s rulings against Trump in a courtroom, who recently rejected arguments from Trump’s lawyers that the case should be dismissed over immunity and other issues.

The case had shaky origins to start. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg brought business recording situations, which would have been misdemeanors had they been filed before the statute of limitations expired, to court, claiming they were felonies because they were in pursuit of another, unidentified crime.

Then Merchan allowed the salacious testimony of a former porn star in his courtroom and the leftist jury in leftist Manhattan returned guilty verdicts to 34 counts.

Trump responded to Merchan’s refusal to dismiss the case, one of multiple lawfare cases Democrats launched against Trump during his first presidency and then in the four years between that and his looming second term, within hours:

He wrote, “In a completely illegal, psychotic order, the deeply conflicted, corrupt, biased, and incompetent Acting Justice Juan Merchan has completely disrespected the United States Supreme Court, and its Historic Decision on Immunity. But even without Immunity, this illegitimate case is nothing but a Rigged Hoax. Merchan, who is a radical partisan, wrote an opinion that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution, and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it. Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President-Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family’s disqualifying and illegal conflicts….”

Trump continued, “….I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself – A despicable First Amendment Violation! Merchan took the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt, that, according to all Legal Scholars, including Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig, Andy McCarthy, Alan Dershowitz, Gregg Jarrett, David Rivkin, Elizabeth Price Foley, Katie and Andy Cherkasky, Paul Ingrassia, and many others, is a nonexistent case, barred by the Statute of Limitations, and should have never been brought and, through his fraud and misconduct, gave it a semblance of ‘life.’ While Deranged Jack Smith was sent packing back to The Hague after losing all of his politically manufactured cases against me, Merchan, who is far worse and even more corrupt than Smith in his fight for my hopeless political opponents, just cannot let go of this charade. Is it because of his conflicts and relations that he keeps breaking the Law? This has to stop! It is time to end the Lawfare once and for all, so we can come together as one Nation and, Make America Great Again.”

Trump’s lawyers, citing Joe Biden’s recent complaints about unfair prosecutions, had insisted Merchan, who inexplicably had told the jury their verdict did not have to be unanimous, dismiss the case entirely.

Trump’s lawyers had told Merchan, “President Donald J. Trump respectfully submits this motion to dismiss the Indictment and vacate the jury’s verdicts… The Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act, and the Supremacy Clause all require that result, and they require it immediately.”

They noted Biden’s claim that son Hunter Biden was prosecuted “unfairly” for his crimes, including gun charges on which he was convicted and tax violations to which he pleaded guilty.

“Yesterday, in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently.’ President Biden argued that ‘raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.'”

In reality, they charged, it was this “same DOJ that coordinated and oversaw the politically-motivated, election-interference witch hunts targeting President Trump by disgraced Special Counsel Jack Smith, the other biased prosecutors in Smith’s Special Counsel’s Office (“SCO”), and others. This is the same DOJ that sent Matthew Colangelo to DA Bragg to help unfairly target President Trump in this empty and lawless case. Since DA Bragg took office, he has engaged in ‘precisely the type of political theater’ that President Biden condemned.”

A report at RedState said it is “Safe to say Trump will be appealing Merchan’s ruling — and neither will be receiving a Christmas card from the other.”

“Trump references George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley in his response. Turley shared some insight on the ruling on X Monday evening, pointing out that there still remains outstanding not only the ruling on the motion to set aside the verdict in light of Trump’s reelection but also the substantive ruling on the challenge to the verdict based on errors made at trial.”

The report added, “As Turley rightly notes, the trial itself was ‘replete with layers of reversible error.’ However, the likelihood of Merchan reversing himself on any of them sits somewhere between slim and none. Nor can we expect, given his ruling on the immunity issue, that Merchan will determine that Trump’s reelection warrants the dismissal of the matter.”

The report noted, “Judge Merchan appears content to allow the 47th President of the United States to twist in the wind over allegedly miscategorizing payments made to his former lawyer as legal expenses. Nearly eight years ago.”

…He still has to rule on the general challenge over errors committed at trial. Some of us view the case as replete with layers of reversible error. https://t.co/o4ZJdNwfb7 However, Merchan was never viewed as likely to second guess his prior rulings…

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 17, 2024