George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley shared his insights Thursday on Fox News on the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to stop the ongoing Manhattan case against former President Donald Trump.
The Supreme Court upheld the decision on Thursday and allowed Judge Juan Merchan to proceed with Trump’s sentencing in New York on Friday. During an appearance on “The Ingraham Angle,” Turley said he saw it coming from the outset and said that Judge Merchan orchestrated a tight procedural timeline that left Trump with minimal leeway to challenge the process.
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“This is what some of us predicted when the appeals just began. Merchan really played this perfectly, and I say that not as a compliment. He knew that he was giving President-elect Trump very little runway by which to take an appeal off,” Turley told Laura Ingraham. “He also knew that appellate courts generally prefer for sentences to be finalized to review the case as a whole, and he played those two cards to guarantee that he’ll be able to sentence President Trump tomorrow.”
Turley said that the sentencing will cement a dual image of Trump: as a convicted felon and as a victim of lawfare.
“He’s going to create the ultimate mandate for President Trump. He will have established with finality the effect of lawfare on our political system. So President Trump will go in, as many on the left want him to go in, as a convicted felon. But for many people in this country, he will also go in as someone who was the victim of lawfare,” Turley said.
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Reflecting on the Supreme Court’s decision, Ingraham said that the vote was close, at 5-4, with four conservative judges disagreeing. The majority included the three liberal justices, alongside Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett.
“The division on that court really does reflect how troubling the case is overall. That what this trial-level judge has done in Manhattan is to hold a presidential candidate first, now a president-elect, to his courtroom on a short leash. This is the same judge that gagged the leading candidate for president in a campaign where his case was one of the issues of most concern with voters. And it obviously is an equal concern among at least four justices,” Turley said.
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Merchan previously scheduled the sentencing for Friday morning, opting to conclude the process before Trump’s term starts rather than after it finishes. Trump sought to delay the sentencing. He said in an emergency appeal that his forthcoming legal challenge would invalidate the district attorney’s case. Trump said the case was baseless and tainted by the testimony of a discredited former lawyer.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.