Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett made an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on Monday where he ripped into New York Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over the Trump hush money case, stating he is “desperate to stain” President-elect Donald Trump by slapping the label “convicted felon” on him before his inauguration on Jan. 20. Jarrett slammed officials in New York for their seeming obsession with Trump rather than taking care of matters in their own state, such as the spike in crime that has been plaguing its communities.
” I think Merchan is desperate to stain the incoming president with the label convicted felon. And understand, under the law, Trump is not officially convicted of anything until he’s formally sentenced, even though many in the media, of course, began immediately and incorrectly calling him a convicted felon when the jury verdict came in,” Jarrett said during the show, according to Fox News.
“That was the whole goal of indicting Trump and putting him on trial. Democrats assumed their politically driven lawfare campaign would destroy him. Instead, you know, it had the opposite effect. Voters saw it for what it was: a corrupt weaponization of the law, and it backfired spectacularly,” he continued.
Here’s more from a transcript of Jarrett’s comments:
Many Americans recognize this was a sham trial, a preordained outcome. It drove a lot of them to Donald Trump and he won. And it’s one of the reasons why these George Soros-funded progressive district attorneys have ruined major cities in blue states. Alvin Bragg is a prime example. If you’re Trump, a misdemeanor business records violation somehow becomes a phantom felony. And in the end, nobody actually knew what he was convicted of. And it wasn’t a unanimous jury verdict. The best we can tell, nobody really knows. A bedrock violation. Bragg goes after, you know, Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny or a bodega worker who dared to defend himself when he was attacked. And he goes after a politician for purely political reasons. This is what Alvin Bragg has brought to New York City.
President-elect Trump’s attempt to have the case thrown out were shot down by Judge Merchan last Friday, who said no to the request to vacate the verdict of the case. Trump and his legal team made the request based on the immunity ruling reached by the Supreme Court that says presidents have immunity from criminal charges when in office as long as the charges are connected to official duties.
The president-elect is scheduled to appear, either in person or virtually, for sentencing on January 10 at 9:30 a.m. However, Merchan said he will not be sentencing Trump to any jail time.
“Bragg, in November, requested to Judge Juan Merchan that the case be stayed until the end of Trump’s second term, but Trump attorneys noted that the Office of Legal Counsel in the Justice Department concluded that ‘the categorical prohibition on the federal indictment of a sitting president…even if the case were held in abeyance…applies to this situation,’” the report added.
So why bother sentencing him to anything at all? If he is really a public menace with a conviction on 30 charges, why not give him jail time?
Maybe it’s because the whole fiasco was politically motivated? Just a thought.