Veteran attorney Alan Dershowitz and Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett sharply criticized Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan after he chose to schedule President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in the highly controversial “hush money” case just under two weeks before Trump’s second-term inauguration. In a filing released Friday evening, Merchan set Trump’s sentencing for January 10, only 10 days before his inauguration. After initially delaying sentencing indefinitely, the Democratic judge ruled that there was “no legal impediment” to proceeding with the sentencing.
During Friday’s episode of “Hannity,” guest host Jason Chaffetz asked the two legal analysts for their thoughts on the last-minute development, with Jarrett responding first. “Judge Merchan is determined to stain Donald Trump with a label convicted felon. To do that though, he has to sentence him before inauguration. Otherwise he can’t really technically call him a convicted felon. So, Merchan is dangling what he thinks is a tantalizing offer. Agree to be sentenced next Friday, Mr. Trump, and there will be no incarceration or probation or anything, complete discharge,” he said.
He went on to highlight the complex nature of the case, particularly District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s use of COVID-era statutes to elevate long-expired misdemeanor bookkeeping violations to 34 felony charges. Bragg’s case rested on the claim that Trump intentionally falsified business records to conceal another crime, yet the alleged additional crime was never specified. Merchan informed the jurors that they were not required to agree on what the supposed additional crime actually was.
Jarrett continued: “Well, I doubt that Donald Trump will bite, and he shouldn’t bite. He was found guilty by a biased jury of crimes that don’t even exist under the law. He was all but framed by a politically driven DA who worked in concert with a hostile judge who was required to recuse himself but refused to do it. So this turned out to be a sham trial based on a convoluted, incoherent legal theory. As you point out, it was utterly absurd, was rife with reversible errors by the judge, and it will eventually get overturned.”
Dershowitz, a Harvard Law School professor emeritus, agreed, adding: “This is the worst instance of Stalinism in my 60-year career. Stalin was told, ‘Show me the man and I’ll find you the crime.’ So Letitia James, the Democratic attorney general, and Alvin Bragg, the Democratic DA, tried to find a crime to convict Trump of, but they couldn’t,” he said. “They couldn’t find the crime. They searched the books. They couldn’t find the crime, so they made one up out of whole cloth. A totally made-up case. If they can make up a case against Donald Trump, they can make it up against you too.”
WATCH:
Great assessment of all that is wrong with the Manhattan sentencing of Trump this month ahead of his inauguration from Fox’s Jarrett and Dershowitz. pic.twitter.com/4vKV6IVuv2
— USA Features Media (@UsaFeatures) January 6, 2025
“Now they’re trying to avoid him getting an appeal. One way of avoiding him getting an appeal was not sentencing him. Now they’re going to sentence him,” the veteran attorney added. “There’s another possibility. The governor may pardon him. If the governor pardons him, then he still has the stigma of a conviction, and there’s a question about whether he can appeal if he’s been pardoned.”
Dershowitz then said he believes that both Bragg and Merchan think the case will eventually be overturned on appeal. “They’re looking at every possible way of avoiding an appellate reversal because any decent appellate court, any decent appellate court, will reverse this conviction for a dozen different reasons. One, there was no crime. Two, there was immunity. Three, error after error after error. Four, recusal and disqualification. The worst criminal case in my memory. The worst,” he said.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.