OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The judge in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has made his first decision.
“At this point, I can inform you that we’re moving ahead to jury selection on March 25,” Justice Juan Merchan said, CBS News reported.
Trump’s attorneys immediately protested the judge’s decision to proceed to trial, saying they expected to be able to discuss timing at the hearing. Todd Blanche, one of the key members of Trump’s legal team, said the decision was a “grave injustice” and pointed to the former president’s various other legal entanglements.
“We have been faced with compressed and expedited schedules in every one of those trials,” Blanche told the judge. “We — meaning myself, the firm and President Trump — have been put into an impossible position.”
Merchan set a preliminary trial date of March 25 at a hearing last May, but there had been no other public proceedings in the case since then, and Trump’s attorneys had sought to have the charges thrown out.
Speaking outside the courtroom Thursday morning, Trump said the case represented a “great double standard” and “election interference.”
“There was no crime here at all. This is just a way of hurting me in the election because I’m leading by a lot,” he told a crush of cameras. “They want to rush it because they want to get it desperately before the election. … They wouldn’t have brought this — no way — except for the fact that I’m running for president and doing well.”
This month a New York Supreme Court justice shut down felony charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against two people who bought phony COVID-19 vaccination cards.
Bragg had charged two individuals, identified only by their initials, J.O. and R.V., according to a New York Post report. They were accused of purchasing fake vaccine cards from a stripper in New Jersey named Jasmine Clifford, allegedly in an attempt to circumvent New York City’s vaccine mandate. The Manhattan DA selected 16 individuals out of approximately 100 who were believed to have obtained fake vaccine cards from the same stripper, charging them all with felony criminal possession of a forged instrument.
Out of the 16 individuals initially charged, 14 chose to plead guilty to lesser charges. However, J.O. and R.V. decided to seek the dismissal of their cases. Bragg fought their efforts, leading to the case being transferred to Lantry’s jurisdiction.
But Supreme Court Justice Brandon T. Lantry pushed back, noting that the Manhattan DA’s office under Bragg’s leadership has “routinely — nearly daily — move[s] to dismiss significantly more serious counts or entire indictments.”
In certain instances, as indicated in his opinion, Bragg’s office made efforts to dismiss charges against individuals with previous felony convictions or individuals whose immigration status could be jeopardized if they were convicted.
“These motions submitted [by Bragg and his prosecutors] are made months or even years after the 45-day period has expired to dismiss … sexual assaults, drug sales, robbery, burglary, and other violent and non-violent serious felony offenses,” Lantry continued.
Critics lambasted Bragg on social media following Landry’s legal smackdown.
“In Bragg’s version of America, hoodlums who steal rape and murder deserve the most leniency possible, but people who refused to go along with the moronic vaxx card tyranny deserve to have their lives ruined,” radio host Buck Sexton said.
“Soros DA Alvin Bragg is prosecuting people for having fake vax cards – 3 years after the fact – while letting killers, rapists, drug dealers & illegal alien invaders who assault cops WALK FREE. Are you paying attention yet?” Monica Crowley noted as well.
City Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli (R-Staten Island) praised the judge, who also served as the former chairman of Staten Island’s Republican Party. Borelli highlighted that one of the defendants obtained the forged card to keep her enrollment in nursing school, only to eventually receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
“This is what Alvin Bragg is — a clown,” Borelli told The Post. “Imagine prosecuting a scared woman for this, even though she didn’t even use the fake card, while at the same time letting violent perps go. I’m glad the judge called him out for the world to see.”
