Manhattan Justice Juan Merchan's Trump sentencing has unveiled a surprising twist that reinforces respect for jury verdicts while dismissing dangerous rhetoric, igniting debates in legal circles.
Judge Merchan's Sentencing Filing Includes a Surprise for Trump
According to a legal expert, Justice Juan Merchan of the Manhattan Supreme Court included a little surprise for Donald Trump in the court's most recent sentencing file in the criminal case involving the president-elect.
On her Substack, former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance wrote on how, in her opinion, Merchan actually made the best of a bad circumstance when he announced that he would not be sentencing Trump to jail time. Vance's post was about how Merchan made the most out of a terrible scenario.
Efforts to Preserve Trump's Conviction Amid Challenges
"Given that they are trapped with a poor circumstance that is out of their control-a guilty defendant likely to become president-they are doing the best for themselves to preserve the conviction itself," Vance wrote.
She further observed that in his ideal world, President Trump would completely do away with it, and their actions appear to be directed toward preventing that from occurring. It would be a scandal if Trump were to be able to escape the verdict that was handed down by the jury.
Legal Expert Points Out Key Strategies in Court Filing
Vance brings attention to a particular method that Merchan attempted to use in order to attempt to defend the conviction in the same blog post that was published on Sunday, January 5th.
"What will sentencing look like if we get there? The Judge shared his view of the seriousness of the process when he discussed the sanctity of jury verdicts," she stated.
Chief Justice's Report Influences Judge's Approach
According to the prosecutor, there is also a very interesting footnote that occurs during his explanation of the repeated claims of wrongdoing, even crime, that have been made by the prosecution team and the Judge himself against the attorneys representing Trump, The Raw Story shares.
In the footnote, Vance further states that Judge Merchan references Chief Justice Roberts' recently released report on the state of federal courts, in which the Chief Justice criticized individuals who query the courts.
To rephrase, the lawyer noted that in an unexpected twist, Judge Merchan indicated, that dangerous language is not a welcome type of argument and will have no bearing on how the court makes this or any subsequent decision, and that the judge wouldn't bow to the will of the next president.
