Speaking to Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity on his “Hannity” program, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley described this wild, biased behavior of Judge Juan Merchan in the courtroom and how that biased behavior made sitting in the court and watching the trial an “otherworldly” experience. Turley’s comment come as Trump and many other on the right have long alleged that Judge Merchan was biased against Trump.
Particularly, Turley pointed to how Judge Merchan, during the proceeding and before the jury was allowed to begin deliberations, let the prosecutors in the case discuss former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen’s plea deal in a way that implicated Trump his former employer, even though there were orders for thye jury to not to let that influence their decision.
Beginning, Turley said that Judge Merchan’s behavior was “otherworldly” and “outrageous,” telling Turley that he had long attempted to give Judge Merchan the benefit of the doubt but couldn’t do so after seeing what he saw. He said, “What I saw in that courtroom was really otherworldly. I really attempted to give the judge the benefit of doubt on many occasions, but what I saw today was, frankly, outrageous.”
Continuing, Turley described what Judge Merchan and the prosecutor did that was so outrageous, telling Hannity, “At one point, the prosecutor actually said that Michael Cohen committed federal election violations upon the orders of Donald Trump.” He continued, “Now, Merchan has given an instruction that the jury is not to supposed to attribute Cohen’s plea deal as an issue of guilt towards Trump.”
Turley then added that though the defense objected, Judge Merchan just let the prosecutor continue. He said, “So the defense objected and Merchan just overruled it and allowed the prosecutor to repeatedly state that the federal election violations by Trump are a fact and there is not any dispute to that and Merchan just sat there.”
Further torching the prosecutor’s conduct, Turley said that the prosecutor had “basically started to testify” when speaking about so-called “catch-and-kill techniques” of the sort that Trump was accused of employing “are just not used in media or politics.” Turley then added, “That’s not in the record. He was giving testimony. There’s no expert for that.”
Then, bringing Hillary Clinton and her campaign up, Turley said, “Hillary Clinton killed and planted cases in that very election.” He continued, “Some of the most outrageous hoaxes were perpetrated by the Hillary Clinton campaign with an enabling media. In fact, many of those reporters listening helped the Hillary campaign do that.”
Concluding and bringing his comments back to how the situation in the courtroom with Judge Merchan was “otherworldly,” Turley said, “That’s what was so otherworldly about today. And I can’t imagine a jury member going into deliberations and not assuming that it is an established fact that federal election law violations have occurred.”
Watch Turley speak to Hannity about the “otherworldly” nature of what he saw here:
Featured image credit: By Jonathan Turley – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36887932
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