Justice Merchan's gagged witness goes public with what he would have told the jury and it's a doozy

 Monica Showalter - American Thinker   After Michael Cohen's disastrous testimony, it would seem that the case against President Trump over the bookkeeping entry in a hush-money payment case would be in tatters as it goes to the jury. Many legal eagles have said as much.

But the politically partisan New York justice in this case, Juan Merchan, doesn't give up that fast and clearly wants to salvage the case. He's instructing the jury to ignore the detail about the 'underlying crime' and treat the case the same way a burglary case is treated." . . .

. . ."The underlying "crime" of course is trying to influence an election. Apparently no one is allowed to influence an election, and especially not a candidate.

"The prosecutorial and judicial argument goes that since Trump did this payment and got elected, it was entirely because this hush money was paid and the election would have gone the other way if he had ignored then-lawyer Michael Cohen's bad advice to make it and instead didn't make it.

"The laws against election influence by foreign actors are suddenly being called into service in this case because hiding one's dirty personal laundry while trying to get elected is unthinkable, a felony, as the prosecution argues, as if no pol had ever done such a thing in the past. Right, John Edwards? Right, Bill Clinton? Grover Cleveland was unavailable for comment.

"What Smith demonstrates is just how valuable his testimony would have been to that jury about what the law is and how regulators enforce it, which instead has to take Michael Cohen's word for it that Trump, who didn't even know about the hush money paid according to another witness, somehow broke the law.

"Sound like a fair trial we have here? Only in a banana republic."

What if Justice Merchan has been compromised? - Patricia McCarthy   "Given what we know about what has been going on in Justice Juan Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom, including the preposterous, over-the-top bias of this judge for the prosecution and his overt antipathy for the defendant, Donald Trump, what explains his willing destruction of his own reputation as a judge? 

Each and every legal scholar who has weighed in on the course of the trial, from Alan Dershowitz to Jonathan Turley and countless others, (with the exception of those paid by CNN and MSNBC) is gobsmacked by Merchan’s thoroughly unconstitutional rulings, gag orders, contempt charges, exclusion of practically every witness with relevant testimony for the defense, and his allowance of non-relevant witnesses like Stormy Daniels. " . . .

Not even Rachel Maddow, the odious Joy Reid or Anderson Cooper can deny that there are two, distinct systems of justice in America today.  

Award-Winning Filmmaker Oliver Stone Says Democrats are Using 'Lawfare' Against Donald Trump    . . ."The Academy Award winner blamed corruption on money in politics.

“If you’re a poor man or a middle-class man it’s very hard to run for office in the United States, unless you have money and corporate sponsors. Money controls politics in the United States. If you go to European countries, you’ll find that their elections are very mandated. The British elections are very low cost, or they used to be until recently. In France, they have election rules. And we need that in the United States. Let’s get the money out of the politics.”

 Alvin Bragg Loses CNN

Tim Scott: "Weaponization of Justice System" Against Trump "Is Something We Find Repulsive as Black Men" | Video | RealClearPolitics . . ."TOM BEVAN: I wanted to talk to you about the black vote and Donald Trump. We had a New York Times Siena poll that came out—a swing state poll—that showed Trump getting 20% among black voters in those swing states. This would be the largest share of the black vote that any Republican has gotten since Richard Nixon in 1960. So, Senator, what exactly is going on with Donald Trump? Why does he seem to have more appeal than ever among African American voters?"