We have had this vision in our head for a few days now, of Kamala Harris at the end of her September 10 debate against convicted felon Donald Trump. After 90 minutes of listening to him yammer, Harris gives her closing statement, smiles gamely as George Stephanopoulos thanks the candidates for participating, walks across the stage, shakes Trump’s hand in a spirit of friendly competitiveness, leans in close, and whispers to him, “Good luck at your criminal sentencing next week.”
Alas, it is not to be. Today, Justice Juan Merchan delayed sentencing Trump for his conviction on 34 felony counts of extreme dicktitude. Now instead of facing the music on September 18, Trump will not hear his punishment until November 26. By which point he might have been re-elected President of the United States.
Grrrr, Donald Trump is the luckiest lump of grievance and spittle to despoil the public square in ever.
In his letter announcing his decision, Merchan noted that Trump’s lawyers had requested the delay last month on the grounds that they needed more time to pursue “appellate options,” and also to avoid the “politically prejudicial” effects of being sentenced for all the crime he did and for which he was duly convicted.
In short, Trump didn’t want to be sentenced before the election on November 5, because then people would be reminded, as if they needed more reminders, that he’s a huge criminal who loves to do crime.
Merchan justified his decision thusly:
[T]he imposition of sentence will be adjourned to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.
But whether or not one candidate is due to serve prison time for a felony conviction is kind of an important issue! If voters know Donald Trump is going to prison or at least paying huge fines or whatever punishment the court imposes, that could affect the election. By seeking to avoid affecting the election, the judge has made a decision that affects the election!
Granted there is no really correct choice here. One side or the other would always howl about fairness and affecting the election. Which is why Merchan should have just imposed the damn sentence and gotten it over with. If Trump’s fans want to use it as motivation to drag their knuckles down to the nearest polling station to vote, fine. If Trump’s lawyers want to use the timing of the sentencing as fuel in all their appeals, they are welcome to do so.
The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution. Adjourning decision on the motion and sentencing, if such is required, should dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and for any candidate for any office.
We have news for you, Judge, which we’re pretty sure you already know: Donald Trump is going to claim the court is biased and Sleepy Joe and the Deep State are conspiring to treasonously keep him from his rightful election win no matter when you sentence him.
This is the second time Merchan has delayed Trump’s sentencing. As he mentions in his letter, the original sentencing was scheduled for July 11. But on July 1, the Supreme Court released its idiotic “the president gets to do whatever crimes he wants while in office just so long as that president is Donald Trump” decision, and Merchan was forced to postpone levying punishment while he examined how this permissive new federal legal doctrine might affect state cases such as this one.
The silver lining here is that Trump will now get sentenced (maybe!) while he’s in the middle of also losing however many dozens of frivolous legal challenges he’s filing after November 5. So there is a chance he will spend the holidays even more miserable than normal. Good.
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