President-elect Donald Trump continued swinging at Judge Juan Merchan hours after he was ordered to face sentencing in his New York fraud case on Jan. 10 – and also hurled furious attacks at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and special counsel Jack Smith.
The incoming president’s Friday evening sound-off on Merchan came as no surprise; Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung issued a fiery rebuke of the justice earlier in the day, calling his boss’s prosecution a “witch hunt."
But Trump took it a step further with his own takedown of the judge, who he labeled a "corrupt" “radical partisan.”
“This illegitimate political attack is nothing but a Rigged Charade,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform Friday night. “‘Acting’ Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”
He continued: “Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family’s disqualifying and illegal conflicts. I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself - A despicable First Amendment Violation!”
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Trump added that “Every Legal Scholar and Pundit” has stated unequivocally “that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought.”
He went on to list a handful of names, including Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig and Alan Dershowitz who, according to Trump, all agree with him.
“Merchan took the Bragg Hoax that, according to all Legal Scholars, should have been dead on arrival and, through his fraud and misconduct, gave it a semblance of ‘life,’” Trump wrote.
“While Deranged Jack Smith was ‘sent packing’ back to The Hague, after losing all of his politically manufactured cases against me, Merchan, who is far worse and even more corrupt than Smith in his fight for my hopeless Political Opponents, just cannot let go of this charade. Is it because of his conflicts and relations that he keeps breaking the Law? This has to stop! It is time to end the Lawfare once and for all, so we can come together as one Nation and, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Merchan gave Trump the option to appear in person or virtually next week.
