Trump's New York trial shows the justice system is working
By Eugene Robinson
Showtime, at last. The first criminal trial of a former U.S. president got underway Monday, with Donald Trump sitting at the defense table in a New York courtroom — and proving that somehow, eventually, our justice system does work.
Just hours earlier, Trump had been on social media hurling a last-ditch salvo of invective in his attempt to intimidate New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan and the state of New York from holding him accountable. Trump railed against “a totally conflicted Judge, a Corrupt Prosecutor, a Legal System in CHAOS, a State being overrun by violent crime and corruption, and Crooked Joe Biden’s henchmen … .” Yada, yada, yada.
It didn’t work. Merchan’s first order of business was to deny a motion by Trump’s lawyers that he remove himself from the case. Merchan ruled that the demand was filled with “innuendos and unsupported speculation” and said ethics rules mandate that a judge is “obligated not to recuse himself when it’s not called for.”
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Trump is right, however, when he says we have a “rigged” and “two-tiered” justice system. But it’s rigged in favor of people like him. Defendants who are rich, famous and powerful get to fly first-class.
https://wapo.st/4aA5HN9
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