Top O' the Briefing

Happy Thursday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Buldenwyck dealt with stress by making ice cream sculptures of Jennifer Lopez from various Baskin-Robbins flavors. 

Well, it's all over but the rigged jury's justification for ignoring what actually happened in the trial. 

I prefer not to comment on legal matters because it's just not my thing. Many of my colleagues are veteran trial observers. I had a rather misspent young adulthood and the mere thought of a courtroom gives me uncomfortable flashbacks. 

The Soviet Socialist Republic of Manhattan show trial of former President Donald Trump is all the rage in the news right now though, and we have all got opinions.  

It's in the hands of the jury now, and there aren't many of us on the Right who think that will go well. The mere fact that this ever went to trial is enough to make one fall permanently into despair over the state of the American legal system. If the jurors had been paying agenda-free attention during the trial they wouldn't have had to deliberate for more than five minutes before returning a verdict of "not guilty."

The notion that this is a jury of Trump's peers is a bit of a stretch too. I'm not saying that he is without peer — although many would — I'm saying that everything has been so stacked against Trump in this disgusting affair that there's no reason to believe that everything with the jury is on the up and up. 

Judge Juan Merchan seems to have done everything that he can to kneecap Trump and his defense team. To even the casual observer, Merchan appears to be dripping in conflict of interest. Then there's this from my Townhall colleague Sarah Arnold: 

House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) filed a complaint about whether the judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s hush money case was chosen randomly. 

Stefanik thinks that rules were ignored and Merchan was chosen to put an even bigger thumb on the scale of justice.

The guy is a real piece of work. It's safe to say that I'm not a fan:

Juan Merchan is the Ángel Hernández of judges.

— SFK (@stephenkruiser) May 29, 2024

Because everything in this trial has to be weird, Merchan's instructions to the jury left a lot of people issuing a collective "Huh?!?!?" 

My friend Stephen Green covered all of it, then updated his column later in the day:

UPDATE/CORRECTION: Fox's John Roberts has since issued an update to his original "smorgasbord" interpretation of Judge Merchan's instructions. He posted, "It is more nuanced than that. All 12 need unanimity that Trump committed a crime. But the underlying unlawful means is a smorgasbord they can pick from - and they don't all need to agree on what it was."

What this means is that there must still be a unanimous guilty verdict, but the jurors do not have to be unanimous about what the actual offense was. There are three to choose from, and all 12 jurors don't have to agree, just so long as there are 12 votes overall. I'm told that's New York law in these cases.

Even with this correction, none of the underlying problems with the case against Trump have changed. There's still no crime that the prosecution has defined, there's still no magic math that lets two misdemeanors add up to a felony, and there's still no getting around Merchan allowing the prosecution to do almost anything while shackling Trump's defense.

(Note to self: Never get railroaded in New York state.)

To be sure, the complete absence of a real crime hasn't presented much of stumbling block to Manhattan District Alvin Bragg and everyone else moving this trial forward. Now we find that New York law makes it easier for the jurors to agree to disagree and still find Trump guilty. 

Of crimes that aren't really crimes. 

Matt asks in a VIP post if America can survive a guilty verdict. I'm still of the opinion that a guilty verdict only empowers Trump, which would mean that the Republic still has a fighting chance. 

However, the Democrats have a bag full of nails that they're trying to hammer into the coffin of American justice as quickly as they can. 

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