As George Soros-backed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had anticipated, the unprecedented indictment of a former president who is simultaneously running for president would be a show trial for the ages. It was one of the only promises Bragg made to win the top position in the city, and he has maintained it, even if it required finding the tiniest, weakest means to bring down Trump.

The opening phase of this prosecutorial horror is not only a grave threat to American democracy, an utter abuse of authority, and evidence of a militarized judicial system, but it is simply the beginning. It is true that a grand jury may “indict a ham sandwich”; nonetheless, it will take a judge to convict Trump of the charges against him, which do not bode well for the former president.

According to reports, Donald Trump should already be familiar with the judge assigned to his case, Juan Merchan. On Tuesday, Trump will be arraigned in Merchan’s courtroom. Preparations are already being made by the Secret Service to take him to New York City for his arraignment.

Merchan “recently presided over the case of the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, as well as the tax fraud trial in which the family’s company was found guilty on 17 counts including charges of conspiracy and falsifying business records,” according to NBC NewYork.

Weisselberg accepted a guilty plea on 15 charges and was indicted on those counts after testifying against his former employer that he engaged in a plot to deceive federal, state, and local authorities.

He was subsequently given a five-month jail term. After turning himself in on the agreed-upon date, Weisselberg is presently completing his term at Rikers Island.

Merchan has sixteen years of experience as a judge, having begun his career in Manhattan as an assistant district attorney. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, he moved to the United States when he was six years old. According to The New York Times, he grew raised in Jackson Heights, Queens. Merchan was appointed to the Bronx Family Court in 2006, Conservative Brief stated, after serving in the State Attorney General’s office.

In addition, Merchan ruled over several high-profile cases, including the 2012 “soccer mom madam” case involving Anna Gristina.

“A grand jury in New York on Thursday indicted former President Trump on charges related to an illegal hush money payment in 2016 to adult film star Stormy Daniels who alleged they had an affair, according to multiple outlets,” Axios reported on Thursday upon this monumental move.

On Monday, just prior to Trump’s indictment, David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, was one of the penultimate witnesses to testify before the grand jury.

“Pecker was a key player in the $150,000 ‘catch-and-kill’ payment to former Playboy model Karen McDougal, in which the Enquirer bought the publishing rights to her claim that she — like Daniels — had an affair with Trump before he became president. The Enquirer never reported McDougal’s allegations but its parent company, American Media Inc., featured her in other publications. Trump has denied having sex with either woman and has denied any wrongdoing in connection with the payments to them,” according to the New York Post.

The case presented by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is judged extraordinarily poor by a number of legal experts.

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

“The question to ask yourself in a case like this [is], ‘Would a case like this be brought against anybody else, whether he or she be president, former president or a regular citizen?’ The answer is… no,” Former Whitewater deputy counsel Sol Wisenberg told the New York Post. CONTINUE READING…