“The number of votes has gone up because other people know what’s going on,” former President Donald J. said Monday, and in all likelihood long-term. Trump before arguments began in his felon trial in New York. Through Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Trump is charged with 34 counts of tampering with business documents, all of which are barred under New York law but have been elevated to a felony prosecution based on an unproven legal theory that they were committed to advancing what prosecutors call a “conspiracy to promote” Trump’s election in 2016.
Presiding Judge Juan Merchán made a donation in 2020 to President Joe Biden, a re-election candidate opposed to Trump and that year’s anti-Trump cause. Merchan’s daughter, Loren, is president of a Democratic-aligned political consulting firm whose clients include Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif. ), who prosecuted Trump’s first impeachment trial, and a primary PAC. Democratic Party fundraiser for Senate candidates.
Despite those obvious conflicts of interest, Merchan has consistently refused to recuse himself from the case. Instead, he imposed a silence that forbade Trump and his lawyers from criticizing him and his family members, as well as all witnesses and members of the New York Tribunal. During jury selection, Merchan refused to allow attorneys to question prospective jurors about their political ideals or voting history. prevent him from attending his son Barron’s high school graduation in May.
The prosecution’s witness, Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, is a convicted felon who has served time for violations of federal finances and is conducting an open vendetta against Trump. He titled his 2022 book about former President Vengeance.
Under criminal trial regulations in New York, Trump will have to be in the courtroom, not on the campaign trail, at least four days a week for a proceeding that could last up to two months amid the 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump has pleaded guilty to all charges and says the trial is a partisan attempt to block his re-election in November.
Polls show that Americans agree with him. According to an AP-NORC poll released last week, only 35% of Americans Trump acted illegally in the New York case, the lowest figure among his four indictments. These numbers have remained constant since March 2023, when Bragg accused Trump of a theory that even the New York Times called “risky. “
Tellingly, the indictment also coincided with Trump’s revival of political fortunes, which saw him mobilize Republicans and decisively defeat all of his major Republican rivals in record time.
Despite Trump’s prosecution in New York and three other jurisdictions, as well as unrelated civil cases, the former president continues to lead Biden in the popular vote in nearly every national election and in several battleground states in 2020.
As the trial progresses, Trump’s star is unlikely to fade. News about the event is already in the headlines and will most likely continue to be, keeping Trump in the public spotlight despite his lockdown in which many Americans (and legal experts) have been forced to flee the world.
If Trump is convicted, it explains why a gigantic percentage of Americans will conclude that the trial and its final results were in fact political persecution and that any guilty verdict, which Trump will effectively appeal, will be ignored in the presidential race.
There is also a significant possibility (due, among other factors, to the weakness of the evidence, the unreliability of the government’s star witness, and Bragg’s legal theory) that the jury will simply acquit Trump or declare the trial a mistrial. Trump proclaims not only his innocence, but also a major victory over a flawed legal formula that, according to polls, is unfair to at least a portion of Americans.
If Trump were re-elected in November, his victory could be largely due to Alvin Bragg and Juan Merchan.
Paul du Quenoy is president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute.
The perspectives expressed in this article are those of the author.
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