Megyn Exposes the Sham Sentencing of Donald Trump in New York Business Records Case

The Democrats finally got what they wanted – or so they think. Donald Trump is now officially a ‘convicted felon.’ He is also our next president, so the left should probably include that term in their celebratory smashes of the football.

In a New York City courtroom on Friday morning, Judge Juan Merchan handed down the sentence of an unconditional discharge to President Trump. That means no jail time or any other punishment, and many believe the conviction will eventually be thrown out on appeal. 

Mark my words: It is going to be thrown out on appeal. Enjoy being able to say “convicted felon” while you can. As a reminder, it goes right after you refer to him as “Mr. President.” This lawfare helped get him elected. I am not exactly sure why the Democrats feel so smug about this.

The Prosecution

None of this stopped the prosecutor in the New York State Supreme Court case, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass, from droning on this morning about just how terrible of a man he thinks Donald Trump is. Here’s a flavor of what he had to say: 

STEINGLASS: …The defendant’s conduct before, during, and after this trial also merits consideration. Instead of preserving, protecting, and defending our constitutionally established system of criminal justice, the defendant – the once and future president of the United States – has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy. Far from expressing any kind of remorse for his criminal conduct, the defendant has purposefully bred disdain for our judicial institutions and the rule of law… 

Such threats are designed to have a chilling effect, to intimidate who have the responsibility to enforce our laws… Put simply, this defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system and has placed officers of the court in harm’s way… Sentencing the defendant permits this court to enter judgment to cement the defendant’s status as a convicted felon…

That is what it was all about. The nerve of this guy to say it is Donald Trump who caused damage to the court and to the justice system with his reaction to this case. Talk about putting the cart before the horse. You, sir, are to blame for all of that. You. Donald Trump called it out for the absolute insulting joke of a proceeding that it was. You caused the lack of trust in an institution that had been mostly respected. Even President Joe Biden called out how he doesn’t trust the justice system when he pardoned his son Hunter. So, please spare me.

This whole thing was rushed to sentencing by a judge who was determined to be able to call Trump a ‘convicted felon.’ It was for that reason and that reason only because it has been about politics from the start. These losers are wrapping themselves in sanctimony. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg was out there claiming the the will of the jury must be heard and who was he to interfere with the jury process. The judge had the same message. 

Give me a break. You two orchestrated this from the beginning. You have been working hand in hand to make sure you could just get this ‘convicted felon’ label on Trump. You desperately wanted it earlier so that maybe it could affect the election, but you failed. You got your conviction and no one gave a sh-t. Even the left-wing media recognized that this case was a joke. You failed utterly in doing anything other than creating sympathy for Donald Trump and making yourselves look like idiots. 

And then, rather than just walking it back because you got enough embarrassment, you rushed to try to get this declaration as though it was going to be meaningful. It means nothing other than you have additionally irritated the next president. Let’s see how that works out for you. I look forward to watching it, frankly. It also probably created more sympathy for Trump from people seeing how unfair this is. 

It is not going well for you, Mr. Steinglass, or for you, Judge Merchan.

SCOTUS Weighs In

Judge Merchan could have held the sentencing hearing, if necessary, after Trump’s presidency, but instead he rushed it. This was a stupid business records case in which Trump wrote down ‘legal expenses’ for money he gave to a lawyer to make a nasty complainant go away. It sounds like a legal expense to me. 

Bragg and Steinglass turned it from a business records case, into a hush money case, into a federal election interference case (one that the feds refused to bring). That means Trump could have been sentenced to up to four years in prison. All of it was based on lies, but, if you follow the prosecution’s logic, he deserved four years in prison, right? So why did we see the D.A.’s office go in there and consent that there should be no prison time? 

They did it because they had to. They had to in order to get this sentencing done before the inauguration. They knew Trump would appeal it, and he did. This week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in a 5 to 4 ruling that they were going to let this play out. It was Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts who did not side with the four other conservatives, costing Trump that decision. 

One of the reasons the Supreme Court said they were not going to hear this right now is because Merchan broadcasted ahead of time that he would not sentence Trump to jail time. That is why the prosecutor and the judge were both like, ‘There will be no prison time. Please, let us hold our hearing in which we get to label him a convicted felon. We want the big CF label. Don’t interfere.’

The Hearing

President Trump was allowed to appear for the hearing over Zoom, which is unusual. Adding to the theater, the judge did something he has not done before in this whole process and released the audio of the proceedings. Previously, no part of the trial was on camera or audio tape. Remember, we didn’t get to hear Stormy Daniels testify. We just saw the sketch artist depiction of her when she took the stand.

But today, Judge Merchan apparently knew people would really want to hear what he and Steinglass had to say about what a sh-t Trump is, and what an important case this was, and how poorly the justice system has been treated by Trump. So, they released the audio – including that of Trump who was participating virtually from Florida. Here is a bit of what the president-elect said:

TRUMP: …It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I’d lose the election and, obviously, that didn’t work… I’m totally innocent. I did nothing wrong. They talked about business records and the business records were extremely accurately counted. I had nothing to do with them anyway. That was done by an accountant. This has been a weaponization of government. They call it lawfare. Never happened to any extent like this, but never happened in our country before. And I just like to explain that I was treated very, very unfairly…

For his part, Judge Merchan waxed poetic about the case from the bench. I think he knew he was going to say something truly profound that America would want to hear and that is why he released the audio. I will let you decide:

MERCHAN: …To be clear, the protections afforded the office of the president are not a mitigating factor. They do not reduce the seriousness of the crime or justify its commission in any way. The protections are, however, a legal mandate, which, pursuant to the rule of law, this court must respect and follow. This court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of the judgment of conviction without encroaching upon the highest office in the land is an unconditional discharge, which the New York State Legislature has determined is a lawful and permissible sentence for the crime of falsifying business records in the first degree. Therefore, at this time, I impose that sentence to cover all 34 counts. Sir, I wish you Godspeed, as you assume your second term in office. Thank you. 

Oh, please. Give me a break. “I wish you Godspeed”? Bullsh-t. This is all such a farce. 

You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 980 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.