The Merchan of Venice

The pound of flesh, which I demand of him, Is dearly bought; ’tis mine and I will have it. If you deny me, fie upon your law! There is no force in the decrees of New York City. I stand for judgment: answer; shall I have it?

That sums it nicely.

Yeah, I know, He pronounces it Mer-Shan. Thing is, in Spanish CH is pronounced as it is in “chimichanga.”

Judge Juan Marchan, born in a corrupt Colombia, who presides over the Donald Trump “hush money” trial, is arguably the most biased, abusive and conflicted judge in the country today. He was handpicked for this event for his hatred and bias against Trump. He is a Biden donor. His daughter has helped raise $100 million for democrats off of Trump and his persecution.

“Remember what this Democrat judge did, this Manhattan Democrat Judge Juan Merchan, who donated to President Biden in 2020, who donated to another anti-Trump cause, whose daughter, Loren Merchan, is a leading Democrat consultant and campaign fundraiser who’s working for Biden and Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff and many other Democrats,” Attorney Mike Davis of the Article 3 Project said.

“This Loren Merchan, the judge’s daughter, has raised nearly $100 million for this criminal trial. She’s profiting from this thing. And CNN doesn’t want its viewers to hear this,” he added.

This is a stupid case. It upends all the canons of law. It violated Trump’s Constitutional rights under the 6th and 8th Amendments. The conviction is based on the testimony of a hooker who denied any affair with Trump and a convicted perjurer. According to Alan Dershowitz the prosecution lied to the jury:

Closing arguments in Trump’s trial based on the indictment of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records secured by Bragg in March 2023 took place Tuesday. Dershowitz said on Tuesday’s episode of “The Dershow” on Rumble that prosecutors misled the jury about Michael Cohen’s claims regarding Trump’s motives for making the $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a confidentiality agreement being corroborated.

“The other claim is that he was intending to defraud the voters of New York, who obviously thought Donald Trump would never do anything wrong sexually and they would have been shocked to learn that maybe he paid hush money to a porn star,” Dershowitz said. “They would have yawned, ‘This is New York, ho hum, so he paid money to a playmate. So he paid money to a prostitute, big deal.’ He was sparing his wife some embarrassment, but you know everybody knows who Donald Trump is and nobody’s voting for him on the grounds that he’s celibate.”

“But the government’s case just crumbles of its own weight and the prosecution is misleading the jury when they say that everything Cohen says is corroborated,” Dershowitz continued. “Yeah, everything Cohen says is corroborated except the two major points, except what turns it into a crime. What’s not corroborated is his testimony that he told Trump he was gonna list these things as legal expenses instead of as compensation and Trump knew all about it. Those are the two things that are not corroborated, so the prosecution is misleading the jury when it makes that closing argument.”

The prosecution kept falsely and deceptively stating that Trump had violated election laws without a scintilla of proof. In his instructions to the jury. Merchan basically said that that if they could find Trump guilty of any one of the counts, he would consider it to be unanimous, Merchan weeded out Trump supporters from the jury. He routinely blocked the testimony of key witnesses. Merchan allowed just about everything the prosecution wanted while at the same time denying the defense.

Merchan’s ruling thus gives the prosecution a wide berth in its introduction of potential impeachment evidence — used to discredit the witness and to persuade the jury that the witness is not being truthful — thereby discouraging Trump from taking the stand in his own defense.

But the opportunity to testify is a necessary corollary to the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee against compelled testimony. As the U.S. Supreme Court put it in the case of Harris v. New York: “Every criminal defendant is privileged to testify in his own defense, or to refuse to do so.” Merchan has given permission for the prosecution to cross-examine Trump regarding civil cases that are far removed from the hush-money case, as well as from the contempt finding from the recent civil case tried in New York. There is no valid basis to permit evidence of these other civil cases, as the nature of the conduct or the circumstances in which it occurred do not bear much on the issue of Trump’s credibility. Moreover, Merchan’s decision sends a chilling message to Trump on his right to testify in his own defense.

The prosecution waited until the defense rested to spring the felony charge on Trump, denying him any possible defense.

In essence, Merchan all but commanded the jury to convict Donald Trump.

There is little doubt that the two lawyers on the jury hated Trump and it was to them that the rest of the of jury deferred.

The verdict has been widely panned. Jonathan Turley:

I obviously disagree with this verdict as do many others. I believe that the case will be reversed eventually either in the state or federal systems. However, this was the worst expectation for a trial in Manhattan. I am saddened by the result more for the New York legal system than the former president. I had hoped that the jurors might redeem the integrity of a system that has been used for political purposes.

This verdict is going to be overturned and the Merchan of Venice knows it. The whole point of the trial was to keep Donald Trump from campaigning for President. That will further be seen in sentencing as the Merchan of Venice is likely to restrict Trump’s travels for the fall, which is set to happen two days before the RNC convention. Kevin O’Leary made a great point on Fox today. As a former President, Trump has Secret Service protection forever. Biden might try to strip him of that, and the motive would be pretty damned obvious. Or the whole Secret Service could stay in prison with Trump. More likely, Merchan will sentence Trump to home arrest complete with ankle bracelet.  That too will make patently obvious the intent. Mike Davis on X:

Preserve your records, @ManhattanDA. You’re ringleaders in a federal criminal conspiracy to violate President Trump’s constitutional rights. Those are serious federal civil-rights felonies. Accountability is coming, starting on January 20, 2025. “Nobody is above the law.”

Juan Merchan, the Colombian immigrant judge, got his pound of flesh. The trial was rigged. Fat Alvin Bragg campaigned to get Trump. The prosecution of Trump was pushed by Joe Biden. The judge was biased. The charges were ridiculous and unprecedented. The damage Merchan has done to the justice system is incalculable and will reverberate across the nation for years to come.

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We are in a dictatorship right now.

Trump is right. It they did this to a former President just to keep him from campaigning, imagine what they can and will do to you. Yet here’s a hint of what can be seen on X right now

These monsters are going to hate the next four years- especially the Merchan of Venice. Americans aren’t stupid. They have awakened a sleeping giant.

DrJohn

DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 40 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 45 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter who is in the field of education.

DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.

Except for liberals being foolish.