Americans proudly proclaim that no one is above the law and that this nation is committed to ensuring equal justice under the law. However, anyone who has watched Donald Trump's legal odyssey might have trouble taking that slogan and commitment seriously.
As legal proceedings in several venues across the country have unfolded, Trump has tied the legal system in knots, using his status as a former president and a current presidential candidate as a tool to delay and blunt efforts that would otherwise hold him accountable.
Sept. 6 brought another example of Trump’s success in getting the legal system to bend to his wishes. On that day, Judge Juan Merchan agreed to his request to postpone sentencing in the New York hush money case until after the 2024 presidential election.
Merchan’s decision was a big victory for Trump, and it feeds the perception that being a former president tilts the scales of justice in your favor.
The sentencing, originally scheduled for July 11, had already been put off once following the Supreme Court’s July decision in Trump's presidential immunity case. At that time, Judge Merchan had set Sept. 18 as the new sentencing date.
Sentencing is now set to occur on Nov. 26. But even that date is not set in stone. As Newsweek reports, Trump is asking the New York Court of Appeals for a further delay.
Last week, Merchan claimed that Trump’s “litany of perceived and unsubstantiated grievances from previous filings...do not merit this court's attention.” At the same time, he accepted Trump’s contention that “a public sentencing” could be "politically prejudicial...on him and his prospects in the upcoming election.”
Merchan suggested that because there was something special........