XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.society.mental-health, misc.legal   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: lynching@nyc.gov   
      
   by Victoria Taft   
      
   Both sides have now rested in the latest Get Trump By Any Means Necessary   
   lawfare effort in New York City. But before the dust settles and the   
   Manhattan jury finds Cheeto-Man guilty, there are a few curious moves made   
   by Judge Juan Merchan that need a bit more going-over, such as his   
   heretofore unknown expertise in federal elections law.   
      
   It’s already been established that the judge is unfamiliar with the   
   constitutionality of gagging a defendant so he can’t defend himself in the   
   court of public opinion, as I explained in one of my many pieces about   
   this issue entitled, “Trump Just Made Huge Point About ‘Unconstitutional’   
   Gag Order in His NYC Case.”  But such a sweet move is hard to resist when   
   your daughter can fundraise off of Judge Daddy’s trial and denigrate   
   Orange Man while working for the Democrat money-raising operation and   
   never expect a retort from the defendant. Ditto for the prosecutors.   
   Trump’s lawyers appealed the gag order, lost, and are appealing now to a   
   higher court so it doesn’t happen to anybody else. This indeed may be one   
   of the biggest pieces of evidence to show this trial for the election   
   interference it is.   
      
   Comes now the understanding that the judge fancies himself an expert in   
   federal elections law. He is a man of many talents, for besides this   
   heretofore unknown federal elections expertise, Merchan is also an expert   
   in legal surgery.   
      
   To wit: Merchan took his legal scalpel to do surgery on Team Trump’s   
   federal elections law expert’s allowable testimony, and the only thing   
   left behind was a patch of Brad Smith’s hair. Team Trump didn’t bother   
   putting the box of hair on the stand.   
      
   The battle over Smith has been going on since pretrial motions, as I   
   explained in a previous piece entitled, “Trump Isn’t the Only One Silenced   
   at His Trial.”   
      
   There was a logical explanation. Honest. The judge told the defense that   
   he didn’t want to confuse the jurors’ understanding of federal election   
   law with an expert on federal elections law and the judge’s own   
   interpretation of federal elections law. Gee, we wouldn’t want to confuse   
   jurors with accurate information, now would we?   
      
   So while Team Trump wrote down yet another reversible error in its Lizzo-   
   sized binder of reversible errors, the judge explained “that allowing   
   Smith to testify expansively on that topic would supplant the judge’s role   
   to determine what the law is,” Politico reported.   
      
   And we can’t have an expert countermand the judge who was chosen not in a   
   randomized selection process, but explicitly to hear this case. It just   
   might ruin everything.   
      
   And we don’t have to wonder what animated the judge’s decision, according   
   to Stephen Miller, the founder of America First Legal and former Trump   
   White House top aide. He wrote on X:   
      
   The Biden-donor judge in NYC ruled that Trump’s defense *cannot* have   
   expert witness Brad Smith — former FEC head— testify that using private   
   funds to resolve a private legal matter is not and could never be a   
   campaign finance violation (meaning there is no crime).The fake campaign   
   finance violation is the entire foundation of the phony case (the felony   
   that gets Bragg around the statute of limitations for his bogus   
   misdemeanor booking charge). Under Bragg’s “interpretation,” Trump would   
   have been *obligated* to use campaign funds for private business expenses.   
   Had Trump done so, DOJ would have prosecuted Trump for NOT using private   
   funds. All of this lunacy underscores a single point: this is raw   
   communist political persecution of Joe Biden’s opponent.   
      
   If you’re a tin pot despot in a third world s***hole country, you’d see   
   what Joe Biden’s DOJ is doing to Trump and think, Hey, I’m not so bad.   
      
      
   For his part, Smith went to X and laid out his thoughts about whether any   
   NDA payment to adult contortionist extortionist Stormy Daniels were   
   campaign expenditures.   
      
      
   Smith explained the state wants to leave the jurors with the idea that   
   Michael Cohen's guilty pleas to two counts of FEC violations in exchange   
   for a shorter prison sentence shows there was illegality there that   
   extends to Trump.   
      
   What Smith would have said, had he been allowed, was that the FEC and the   
   Department of Justice refused to bring charges because the acts weren't   
   illegal.   
      
   Bragg's theory hinges on the claim that Trump tried to influence an   
   election through "unlawful means." To do that, he'll have to show that   
   Trump violated the Federal Election Campaign Act. But since neither the   
   FEC nor DOJ sued Trump, he's got to show it on his own evidence.   
      
   If that's the case, isn't it entirely relevant (not dispositive, but   
   relevant) to the jury's fact-finding on that question that neither DOJ nor   
   FEC chose to prosecute? But  Judge Merchan won't allow that in.   
      
   The upshot is that Michael Cohen was the only one in the trial who was   
   allowed to testify about the legality of the NDA payments.   
      
   He will, though, allow in numerous references to Cohen's guilty plea, and   
   allow Cohen to testify as to how he thinks he and Trump violated FECA--   
   though it appears that Cohen is a dunce about campaign finance laws. This,   
   he admonishes the jury, is solely for "context." Right.   
      
   Apparently, that's the "context" the judge wants the jury to understand   
   before they go back to deliberate this case.   
      
   The jury will get the case next week sometime. Merchan told jurors to come   
   back next Tuesday.   
      
   https://floppingaces.net/most-wanted/local-judge-says-he-dont-need-no-   
   stinkin-federal-elections-law-expert-to-mess-up-his-trump-lynching/   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)