Georgetown University law school professor Jonathan Turley has raised concerns regarding Judge Juan Merchan’s handling of former President Donald Trump’s hush money case in Manhattan. Turley specifically pointed out what he views as a potential “reversible error” in the judge’s decision-making process.
According to Turley, Merchan’s decision to allow prosecutors, led by Michael Colangelo, a former Biden administration official who previously served as acting associate attorney general, to claim that Trump violated federal election laws by making $130,000 in hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election may have been a misstep. It is worth noting that the Federal Election Commission concluded that these payments were not related to the campaign, and federal prosecutors in New York did not find any wrongdoing when they investigated the matter in 2018.
“I got to tell you, I think this judge may have already committed a reversible error,” Turley told “Fox and Friends” co-host Ainsley Earhardt. “He could try to amend it, he could try to change it in his instructions, but that jury has now been told repeatedly that there are federal election crimes here, strongly suggesting that the payment to Stormy Daniels did violate federal election laws. That’s just not true.”
He subsequently shifted his focus to Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer of Donald Trump, who has been incarcerated for perjury but is anticipated to be a key witness for the prosecution.
“Michael Cohen is literally going to tell that jury, ‘Please send my client to jail for following my legal advice,’” Turley said. “All of the stuff that they are talking about, he set up, he structured this and told his client that, ‘we could do this.’”
“It’s a bizarre moment,” Turley added.
