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In the end, rich white dudes always seem to get their way in the US justice system.
Exhibit 1,354,969 of this truism is Friday’s decision of Judge Juan Merchan to delay sentencing convicted felon Donald Trump until after the election.
Once again, the former president escapes accountability when it would matter the most.
All it took were some high-priced lawyers (paid for by donors to Trump’s political campaign) and endless whining that being convicted of crimes committed to influence the outcome of the 2016 election amounts to “election interference.”
Or, to put it differently, here is Trump’s “logic”:
When a presidential candidate is falsifying business records to hide hush money payments made to a porn star to improve his chances of winning, that’s perfectly ok.
However, when he gets caught, charges are filed, a grand jury hands down an indictment, and a jury unanimously votes to convict, that’s unjust.
To be fair, Merchan was put in a tough spot. Any sentencing of Trump, no matter how lenient, would have resulted in accusations of him being biased and that the trial was politically motivated.
The judge acknowledged as much throughout his decision.
Merchan stated that he will delay sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
In other words, Trump, with his endless complaining, gets what he wants.
It also seems highly unlikely that the former president will now cease his baseless “election interference” claims, which ring especially hollow after the ruling. And neither will Merchan’s decision end the GOP’s attacks on his family.
While he chose the honorable path, one can’t help but notice that Trump’s delaying tactics worked again, and that leaves a bitter taste behind.
The judge explains this by stating that “the court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution.”
That probably comes as news to the right-wing Supreme Court justices, whose decision to grant Trump a “get-out-of-jail” card for committing crimes that can in any way be considered as “official acts,” triggered this latest delay.
“Adjourning decision on the motion and sentencing, if such is required, should dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and/or any candidate for any office,” Merchan ruled.
In light of how Trump and his cronies will react, that seems horribly naïve.
It also shows that the former president will mercilessly exploit any circumstance when somebody tries to do the “right” thing.
This is a pattern we have seen again and again, and it won’t stop until somebody steps up for the rule of law. Of course, if Trump is elected again, he will show everybody what the real weaponization of the justice system looks like.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often funny analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
