Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s attorneys should seek a writ of mandamus to prevent Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg from drawing the case out.

“You can’t unfreeze a case any more than you can unfreeze… a live human, human being. What’s the purpose of freezing the case? It’s so obvious to any lawyer. Now, people who are not lawyers may not understand why Bragg wants the case to be frozen for four years,” Dershowitz said. “While the case is frozen, until there is a sentence, under New York law, Trump can’t appeal. We all know that once Trump appeals, the conviction will be reversed. Ideally, it will be reversed.”
***
“One way or the other, sentence within 30 days, one or the other, the courts will not allow a four-year freeze designed to circumvent the right to an appeal,” Dershowitz added.

I think this may be exactly what’s happening. I think Merchan and Bragg have always known they’d lose on appeal, but were gambling that the “convicted felon” label, added to the rest of the lawfare, would be enough to keep Trump from getting elected. Once he lost, let him appeal — who would care if he was ultimately vindicated? Of course, this strategy backfired, and the blatant injustice of the NY criminal and civil trials helped drive the national shift to the right that propelled Trump to victory. Now, Merchan and Bragg have to think about their legacies and political futures.

They have to be worried about letting an appeals court get its hands on Merchan’s rulings. New York precedent is not the least bit ambivalent about, for instance, the absolute nature of a defendant’s right to be specifically advised by indictment of the charges against him before trial, or the equally absolute right to a unanimous jury verdict. Appellate courts have to write out the reasons for their decisions. I just can’t imagine how even the most Dem-sympathetic appellate court on earth could come up with a plausible explanation for affirming Merchan’s rulings that allowed Bragg not to advise Trump of which felony he supposedly intended to commit that converted time-barred misdemeanor charges into felonies, or allowed the jury to render a non-unanimous verdict on that question. Even a one-word “AFFIRMED” decision would establish a terrible precedent.

I wonder if Merchan is waiting to see how the AD First decides the civil fraud case. The panel expressed a lot of skepticism in the September oral arguments, not just about the size and validity of the judgment but also about the reasons for the prosecution. That decision should be handed down sometime soon. What the appellate court decides and the tone it takes may send smoke signals to Merchan on how it may view the criminal appeal.

I, personally, would rather see an appeal, because that’s the only way to completely clear Trump’s name. A post-verdict dismissal won’t do that, especially if it’s based on presidential immunity. That could just make it look as if Trump got away with something. But, at this point, that may be the best outcome Bragg and Merchan have left to hope for. I don’t see how a criminal sentencing and appeal can proceed against a sitting President — and by the time four years have passed, will anyone care, even Trump?

This recent remark by om could be a banner headline to every post about something the Democrats did since… well, forever, really.

“The left doesn’t care if they are wrong.”

James Kunstler ended a recent post with a differentiation of law and lawfare, the latter being what the Democrats are mostly engaged in.
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/the-great-splainin-cometh

So now Mr. Trump has picked a cabinet that scares the blob to death — for good reason. They are aiming to systematically disarm and disassemble the blob. They are a team of serious and intelligent warriors and they mean business, in particular Gaetz, Gabbard, Kennedy, Ratcliffe, and Homan, with Elon and Vivek riding shotgun. (A new FBI Director has not yet been named.) You must wonder how the blob is planning to defend itself, for it surely will resist.

Many of us believe that the two recent assassination attempts against the now-President-elect were blob-sponsored operations. Everybody expects they’ll try again. But it’s possible that the American system still has enough mojo to self-correct. A whole lot of public officials have a whole lot of ‘splainin’ to do. It looks like they will be compelled to now, including the public health officers who brought us Covid-19 and the mandated, ineffective-and-harmful mRNA vaccines.

There’s every reason to believe that the ‘splainin’ can take place in correct proceedings according to law: hearings, grand juries, courts. We do have actual laws against racketeering, abuse of power, election fraud, bribery, malicious prosecution, sedition, treason, and conspiracy to commit all those crimes. Pay attention: all that is distinct from lawfare, which is making-up crimes, faking crimes, and faking procedure. You are going to see a demonstration of how law differs from lawfare. It ought to have a salutary effect on our national esprit. And that should motivate us to get on with the job of repairing the damage done to our country.