Shocking news about Trump’s sentencing delay sends a message: MAGA anger works

To be fair, Merchan faced a real dilemma here with no easy answers. But it is a dilemma created by the corruption of Trump and MAGA. To understand the profound perversity of this situation, read this description in The New York Times the choice before Merchan:

A delay would … reward the delaying tactics Trump has used throughout the case and reinforce the very impression the judge has tried so hard to dispel – that the former president is above the law.

But if Judge Merchan, a moderate Democrat who was once registered as a Republican, issues a ruling just seven weeks before Election Day, Trump will undoubtedly accuse him of trying to skew the election campaign in favor of [Kamala] Harris.

Note that the latter consideration – that a conviction in September would lead to accusations that the judge would support Harris – is based on something Trump would create out of thin air. Trump would claim that is the case, supported by a massive right-wing media propaganda network, although there is no evidence anywhere to support this. Merchan apparently delayed the verdict so as not to give Trump the mere opportunity create the wrong impression that the system is rigged against him.

“This is a court that explicitly took the election and political considerations into account in granting Trump a reprieve,” legal scholar Matthew Seligman told me. Paradoxically, Seligman said, following Merchan's original sentencing plan would have actually been “apolitical justice.”