An Injustice, Trump’s Sentencing & Presidential Degrees of Separation – Top 3 Takeaways – January 10th, 2025
- Injustice. In ten days, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United States. This morning, at 9:30, the president-elect has been ordered to virtually report to New York Judge Juan Merchan’s court room for the purpose of attempting to achieve one final injustice in the coordinated but ultimately failed four-year lawfare campaign against him. Judge Merchan’s insistence on sentencing the former and future president of the United States for last year’s conviction in the Stormy Daniels case comes down to one thing. One not-so-insignificant detail. Did you know that Donald Trump, as of this moment, is in fact not a convicted felon? Yes, that’s right, every news report you’ve heard since last spring branding him as a convicted felon, after the handpicked New York jury decided Trump was guilty on 34 charges of being Donald Trump (I mean guilty of ‘falsifying of documents’ pertaining to the payment of $130,000 for an NDA to Stormy Daniels in 2016. An NDA she violated btw), has been false. A la ABC News which has been reporting since last May false stories like this: Trump is now a convicted felon. Here's what that could mean for his rights, or US News & World Report’s Trump’s Defiant First Day as a Felon and NBC News “Can a convicted felon be president”? Those and all similar characterizations against Donald Trump have been and currently are false. Under the law one is only officially convicted, in this case a felon, when a sentence has been issued. That’s what this morning’s hearing is all about. While the lawfare campaigns against Trump all failed in a spectacular way, with the American people delivering Trump a far larger victory this time around compared to his first time around, the petty leftists of the world like Judge Juan Merchan still want to be able to extract their pound of flesh by being able to legally brand the President of the United States as a convicted felon. The one thing that could have stopped this was a final appeal to the United States Supreme Court. Last night the Supremes, by an apparent 5-4 vote with Justices Barrett and Roberts joining Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson opted not to take the extraordinary action of intervening at this point in the process stating: First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge' after a brief virtual hearing. Now, once the sentence is issued and the conviction is confirmed, the appeals process will begin all over again as team Trump will look to have the conviction overturned. As I mentioned on June 7th last year...
- <<Trump’s conviction will be overturned. Maybe you’ve thought it. Objectively with the violations of due process in Judge Juan Merchan’s handling of Trump’s New York State case that led to his criminal conviction on 34 counts it should happen. But while we wait, watch and see what will be with the eventual appeals process that will come into play following the sentencing of the former and perhaps future President of the United States – former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr is predicting that it will happen. Bill Barr, the two-time AG that famously had a falling out with Donald Trump following the 2020 election – leading to Barr leaving his post as AG prior to January 6th – told Fox News that an overturning of the conviction would be forthcoming. In fact, he had a lot more to say than just that. Quoting Barr: When people were talking about it, I said that the case was an abomination, and I didn't think it was going to be brought at the end of the day because it was so vaporous. I was surprised they went ahead with it… it was an abomination. And everyone's talked about that. But you think about, how are the American people going to react in a very close election if Trump loses and this case is overturned - which it will be, this case will be overturned. It's unfair to the voter. And, you know, the co-conspirator in all of this is the mainstream media. Yeah. Who will not talk about the issues or give honest reports on anything. And boom goes the dynamite. He also added this: I think the Justice Department knows that the facts alleged in this case would not have constituted a federal campaign violation. If they keep this gag order on them. Again, it's unprecedented and crazy that you have a major candidate who can't defend himself.>> Well, Trump didn’t lose a close election but instead won by a sizeable margin because the American people saw right through the election interference sham. It’s likely that one way or another the legal system will see through this sham of a conviction as well – be it this morning or later.
- Degrees of separation. Most of the conversation surrounding former President Jimmy Carter’s funnel yesterday involved the former (and future) presidents and vice presidents on hand for the ceremony and specifically how they interacted (or didn’t) with one another. For example, on hand for the funnel Al Gore. Not on hand for the funnel Tipper Gore. Btw, did you know they’ve apparently been separated since 2010? I had no idea until yesterday. That’s a large and long degree of separation (Incidentally, Al Gore was the first to greet President-elect Trump as he entered to take his seat). But perhaps the largest degree of separation exists with the Cheney’s. The former vice president to George W. Bush, notably wasn’t on hand making Dick Cheney the only living president or vice president not to attend. No reason was given but it’s perhaps reasonable to think that the Cheney’s, both father and daughter, having failed in their attempt to do to anything to prevent Donald Trump from once again becoming president, had a lot to do with it. The degree of separation between Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, and the president-elect meanwhile, didn’t appear to be so great. Despite the significant distance that’s been voiced publicly between the two, there was a cordial encounter and handshake that took place. But what really stole the show was what appeared to be a great convo between the Big O’ (who was on hand without the other O’ who stayed back in Hawaii) and Donald Trump. The two shared a back and forth that lasted several minutes and that often-featured smiles and brief laughs. That’s what was happening when the Clinton’s arrived, who were ignored by both Obama and Trump, ditto the Bushes – though George and Laura received a warm reception from all of the others. And Obama and Trump were still well into their conversation when Vice President Kamala Harris arrived, who looked back towards Presidents Obama and Trump only to grimace and turn back around when she saw they were seemingly enjoying each other’s company. Last but not least to enter were the Biden’s who likewise weren’t acknowledged by the previous two presidents. It’s easy to read way too much into what does or doesn’t happen on a solemn occasion. But it’s also rather easy to see who most appreciates whose company and to what extent there tend to be degrees of separation between our current, former and future leaders.