Oh, that’s rich
The leaders of the incoming Republican administration share the same first and middle intials, just in reversed order: D.J. Trump and J.D. Vance. I’m trying to decide if they stand for Delayed Justice or Justice Denied.
On the delay and deny front, Juan M. Merchan, the New York trial judge overseeing Donald Trump’s “hush-money payment to a porn star” trial, denied a Monday request by Trump’s lawyers to delay his Friday sentencing, reports The New York Times:
Although Mr. Trump’s lawyers had implored the judge to postpone the sentencing, Justice Merchan dismissed their claims as “a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”
Mr. Trump is now poised to escalate his effort, court filings show, turning to a New York appeals court in hopes that it will intervene in his case.
Late Monday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers filed a civil proceeding against Justice Merchan before the appeals court, challenging two of the judge’s recent decisions to uphold Mr. Trump’s conviction. Mr. Trump’s lawyers will argue to the appeals court that Mr. Trump is immune from criminal prosecution now that he is the president-elect.
The flurry of filings demonstrates the great lengths to which Mr. Trump will go to avoid his sentencing.
It is premature, of course, but bookmark that last sentence as a nominee for understatement of the year. Trump will go to any length to avoid accountability for his misdeeds. He’s made a second career of it.
With a change of administrations pending, Trump’s attorneys argue that Attorney General Merrick Garland should not release to the public special counsel Jack Smith’s draft report on his two investigations into Trump.
One investigation examines Trump’s alleged theft of classified documents and another his alleged participation in trying to overhrow the results of the 2020 presidential election. Department of Justice regulations dictate that “special counsels must submit reports explaining their legal decisions at the conclusion of an investigation,” The Washington Post reports. Garland has said he would release (with necessary redactions) any reports that reach is desk.
But Trump’s lawyers say releasing the two-volume report days before their client is again sworn in as president would be disruptive for his transition, according to a letter to Garland included in a motion filed in Florida federal court Monday evening.
“Releasing Smith’s report is obviously not in the public interest — particularly in light of President Trump’s commanding victory in the election and the sensitive nature of the ongoing transition process,” Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and John Lauro said in the letter.
Donald Trump — yes, that Donald Trump — on the anniversay of the Jan. 6 insurrection is concerned about actions that would be disruptive to the “sensitive” presidential transition process. Trump’s “commanding victory” hung on a handful of votes in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Trump’s lawyers have made a similar argument in their currently unsuccessful attempt to cancel the president-elect’s sentencing this Friday in his separate New York state criminal conviction for falsifying documents related to a hush money payment before the 2016 election.
May their tongues cling to the roof of their mouths.