“HE HATES ME”
Trump already knows his judge – and scolds
By Roland Peters
4/1/2023 4:57 am
Ex-President Trump will soon travel to New York to hear the indictment against him in the Stormy Daniels case. The judge responsible for the case previously ruled in Trump’s disadvantage. All of this could be just the beginning.
Donald Trump wouldn’t be Donald Trump if he didn’t use every accusation, every detail and every flimsy assumption to counterattack. This is also the case in the current case, in which a US ex-president has been indicted for the first time ever. The document is to be read to him next Tuesday afternoon in New York City, with Juan Merchan as the chief judge in charge of the Manhattan district. In a tirade on his social network Truth Social wrote Trump: “The judge HATES ME”.
Whether this is the case cannot be determined. However, the two have a legal history. Merchan previously worked as a prosecutor in Manhattan, i.e. in the office from which the indictment against Trump now comes. As a judge, he was also responsible for the previous judgments against the Trump Organization. The judge forced his former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, to plead guilty, Trump wrote. “He treated my companies VICIOUSLY.” The court sentenced Weisselberg to jail and the company, which includes Trump’s business activities, to a maximum fine of $1.6 million.
Merchan and Trump will now meet again, but in the case of the hush money payment to ex-porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he is said to have had sex and sworn her to secrecy for campaign reasons. His former attorney, Michael Cohen, had ordered the payment, mistakenly booked it as “legal expenses” and had Trump refund the money. Since this was intended to hide another offense – illegal campaign finance – false reporting could be punishable by up to four years in prison in New York State.
Another broad-based civil lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General against the Trump Organization for systematic fraud is currently scheduled to begin in October. If convicted, Trump and his children could be banned from doing business in the state. Investigators want the company to pay at least $250 million.
Process probably in the primaries
A lawyer for Trump said that the ex-president would not resist, but would endure the procedure, which means taking fingerprints and taking photos, hearing the indictment and then pleading guilty or not guilty. The details of the schedule are being negotiated by the Secret Service, which also protects ex-presidents, and the court. After that, it might be some time before the next big event. In the case of the Trump Organization, 15 months elapsed from the indictment to the verdict.
So Trump could be put on trial in the middle of his primary campaign for the Republican presidential candidacy, which would politically extremely charge him. Should he be convicted or even end up in prison, he can theoretically still be sworn in again. But the Stormy Daniels case is just one of many possible charges that could hit the ex-president in the coming months.
The investigations by the Department of Justice prosecutors into the secret documents seized by the FBI during a raid in his home town of Mar-a-Lago and his handling of other documents during his presidency can become particularly politically dangerous for Trump. Investigators are also looking into Trump’s role in the January 6 riot, when a crowd stormed the Washington DC Capitol during the vote count.
Both can end Trump’s political career. If convicted of destroying classified documents, he could be barred from public office. That would also be the case with a guilty verdict for aiding or inciting the January 6 uprising. The reading of the indictment in the hush money payment case against Stormy Daniels could just be the first legal breath before a storm.