Bragg went a dangerous step further than Stalin ever did: he made up a crime. He found a misdemeanor that was past the statute of limitations, making a false bookkeeping entry on a corporate form and magically converted it to a felony that was within the limitation period by alleging that the false entry was intended to cover up another crime. [What was that crime?] Bragg never explicitly [said]. In fact, the prosecution didn’t tell the court what Trump’s other ‘crimes’ were until their closing arguments on Wednesday, by which point the defence had no opportunity to respond [!] And even then, the supposed crimes outlined were vague. In his closing instructions, Judge Merchan [told] the jurors they didn’t actually have to agree on the specifics of Trump’s [crimes]. How could someone defend themselves against such vague allegations? It was at this moment that I became convinced that the jury would find him guilty. [This] conviction may well mark the beginning of a new era of partisan weaponization of our justice system. DA Bragg has demonstrated how easy it now is to get a conviction against a political opponent. Other ambitious DA’s are likely to follow suit. [T]he ultimate losers will be the American public.
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, May 31, 2024
A large number of Americans that are going to see [the conviction of Donald Trump in New York] as the weaponization of the enforcement agencies. It’s bad for our democracy. I think the Democrats feel [Joe Biden] cannot win fair and square … and so they have to win in the courts by … getting their other opponents out of the race. … It’s not good for our country. … We risk making our country like a banana republic where if somebody’s going to run against you, you get rid of them … We need to be very careful about separation of powers. … What I would say to the Democrats is, even if you win this way, what is it going to do to our country? [They are getting away with this] because a lot of them in the media have forgotten what journalism is, a lot of them have forgotten what integrity is.
Former Democrat and member of the iconic Democrat Kennedy family and current independent candidate for president of the United States, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., commenting on the conviction of Donald Trump in New York, May 24, 2024
It is fundamental to our American system of justice that the government prosecutes cases because of alleged criminal conduct regardless of who the defendant happens to be. In this case the opposite has happened. The district attorney, who campaigned on a promise to prosecute Donald Trump, brought these charges precisely because of who the defendant was rather than because of any specified criminal conduct. The political underpinnings of this case further blur the lines between the judicial system and the electoral system, and this verdict likely will be the subject of a protracted appeals process.
Susan Collins (Republican Senator, ME), serious Trump critic in the past, May 34, 2024
President Biden has turned our country into a banana republic, a country where those in power use the law, and the justice system, to persecute their political opponents. … How can we as Americans feel safe when we know that those in power can use the power of law enforcement to go after their political opponents, to go after people who have the courage and audacity to challenge them. The foundation of our democratic republic is that we have faith in the rule of law, that we, as Americans, will be treated equally. That foundation has been destroyed by the Biden-Harris administration. They have done this through their personal political persecution of Donald Trump. If we allow this to stand, our country will be finished. We must hold Biden and other politicians who put their own desire for power [ahead of] our freedom, our constitution, our Bill of Rights, our rule of law, our democratic republic.
Former Democrat Party rising star and presidential candidate from Hawaii’s 2nd district, Tulsi Gabbard, May 24, 2024
Before jurors left [for deliberation] Judge Juan Merchan framed their deliberations in a way that seemed less like a jury deliberation than a canned hunt. For many of us, the Trump trial has seemed otherworldly, a vaguely familiar proceeding where common elements of a trial seem to have been flipped. Even before the jury instructions, the trial was controversial for both liberal and conservative commentators. At the start of closing arguments, most honest observers were still wondering what the prosecutors were alleging as to the crime that Trump was allegedly concealing with the falsification of business records. Judge Merchan [allowed] the prosecution [to] engage in flagrant violations from offering testimony on unestablished facts to directly contradicting prior instructions.
GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley, May 30, 2024
I am obviously saddened by the verdict, but not surprised. Until the very end, I was hopeful that there would be a hung jury, a result that could restore some integrity to the New York criminal justice system. However, I previously noted that the jury instructions [by the judge] made conviction much more likely. I referred to the deliberations as a legal “canned hunt” due to instructions that made conviction a near certainty. … Judge Merchan committed, in my view, layers of reversible error.
Jonathan Turley, May 31, 2024
[G]reat damage was done today to the public’s faith in the American legal system. If a former President can be criminally convicted over such a trivial matter – motivated by politics, rather than justice – then anyone is at risk of a similar fate.
Elon Musk, one of the undeniable geniuses of our time, May 31, 2024
The way they’re coming for Trump right now, this thing they’re doing right now, the criminal trial for the hush-money payment: He incorrectly labelled a payment. It’s like a ledger thing. Its not even like its illegal to pay someone to shut up. Its like how he recorded what that payment was for.
Lifelong leftist and former Bernie Sanders supporter Joe Rogan, May 31, 2024
Prosecutors got [Trump]. But They contorted the law in their quest to snare their prey. … [T]his case was an ill-conceived, unjustified mess. … Plenty of prosecutors have won … convictions in cases that shouldn’t have been brought in the first place. ‘But they won’ is no defence to a strained, convoluted reach unless the goal is to ‘win,’ now, by any means necessary and worry about the credibility of the case and the fallout later.
“Liberal” CNN Legal analyst and Harvard J.D. Eli Honig, June 1, 2024
Why don’t we have the NY vs. Trump Verdict Form?
NYU J.D., former Trump critic, Republican Andy McCarthy, May 30, 2024
Regardless of what happens to Trump, all of us will live to regret [the Trump conviction in New York].
Andy McCarthy, “In Memory of Justice”, June 1, 2024
Donald Trump … is the strongest man I’ve ever met.
University of Albany J.D. and elected judge of Westchester, New York, Judge Jeanine Pirro, May 31, 2024
Fat Al in is the colour of baby poop. Hoping he soon has a rendezvous w. A maniac on the subway.
One of my best friends who was a Democrat, as I was then, got elected to the position of Prosecuting attorney of St Louis County MO. He agrued and won the case against a man who was convicted of murder 1st degree, and sentenced to death. I asked my friend if he was so certain of the crime that he was comfortable with the sentence, and his reply floored me, he said connecting those dots was not his job. He made the case, he was a very good prosecutor, and the defense was a public defender. The man was executed, the first in the state after a long hiatus. The flaws in our system, are such that it doesn’t have time for collateral damage consideration. Too bad this concept is placed in the hands of people who need to please the majority.
Yes, that is what always bothered me about lawyers. Interesting that so many DC politicos are attorneys. Pay them enough and they will argue anything. Mouth hookers really is all they are.