Having served on three Manhattan juries, I would not be surprised if the 12 men and women hearing New York v. Donald J. Trump acquit him of all charges.
During two civil actions and one criminal case, my fellow jurors were serious, professional, and movingly civic-minded. A quiet, solemn patriotism infused our deliberations. Several jurors said that we should respect the justice system because, someday, we might need it to respect us.
My first case was a medical-malpractice lawsuit involving a botched abortion. We empathized with a woman wounded by her doctors, but her lawyer did not prove negligence. So, we backed her physicians.
“But we’ve got to give her something,” one juror insisted.
Others instantly rebuked him.
“That’s not how it works!” one said. “I feel sorry for her, too,” another admitted. “But her lawyer never made her case.”
So, we sent the plaintiff home without a penny.
Next, we deliberated intensely for almost three days before concluding that a Harlem drug counselor never demonstrated his defamation-of-character claim against his employers. My sympathetic pleas went unheeded, and he left empty-handed.
Finally, in her closing argument, a criminal prosecutor displayed a CD-ROM of a police dispatcher’s “Be on the lookout” announcement after an armed robbery. When we asked the judge to play that recording, he told us that it was not in evidence.
Disgusted by this prosecutorial deception, we instantly and angrily acquitted the defendants. Minutes later, as foreman, I proudly announced our verdict in court.
These three cases confirm that Manhattan juries are sober and perfectly capable of fairness.
That is good news for Trump.
A jury of levelheaded Manhattanites would appreciate these facts that verify the profound vacuity and fundamental unfairness of District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “case” against Trump:
“The Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over civil enforcement,” the memo says.
Nowhere does this federal rule grant local prosecutors authority to enforce federal election laws. Thus, Bragg’s case is a shack built atop a cloud of helium.
With 48% of registered voters telling Reuters-Ipsos last month that Trump’s Kafkaesque cases are “excessive and politically motivated” (41% disagree) even a Manhattan jury could scrap Bragg’s contraption.
My memories of jury duty, including within the Stalinesque building in which Trump is being persecuted, tell me that deliberating jurors could think, “I won’t vote for Trump. But I cannot convict him beyond a reasonable doubt in a shaky case about actions that are lurid, but legal.”
If just one juror agrees, this case will end with a hung jury. A second trial would be unlikely before Election Day.
And if “lurid, but legal” reflects the opinions of 12 of my fellow Manhattanites—who tend to be tough, but fair—then Trump will be acquitted on all charges and go back to where he belongs: The campaign trail.
The Daily Signal publishes a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Heritage Foundation.
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A woman in Tucson, Arizona, has been sentenced for poisoning her husband's coffee after a camera caught her in the act.
The post VIDEO: Arizona Woman Who Poisoned Husband’s Coffee with Chlorine Gets Probation appeared first on Breitbart.
The Netherlands’ contestant in the Eurovision Song Contest who was dramatically expelled from the competition hours before the grand finale will likely be charged for making illegal threats, Swedish police said Monday.
The post Swedish Police: Joost Klein, Dutch Artist Expelled from Eurovision Contest, Is Likely to Face Charges appeared first on Breitbart.
At least 21 people were shot, three of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson's (D) Chicago.
The post Mayor Johnson’s Chicago: At Least 21 Shot During Weekend appeared first on Breitbart.
Parents in Minnesota are facing charges related to the fentanyl overdose death of their one-year-old baby girl in December of 2023.
The post Minnesota Parents Face Charges for Baby’s Fentanyl Overdose Death appeared first on Breitbart.
Actor Steve Buscemi is OK after he was punched in the face by a man on a New York City street, his publicist said Sunday.
The post New York City: Actor Steve Buscemi Punched in Face — ‘Random Act of Violence’ appeared first on Breitbart.
House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) lit up his office with blue lights in honor of law enforcement officials ahead of police week.
The post House Majority Whip Lights Up Office Blue in Honor of Law Enforcement appeared first on Breitbart.
A Georgia mom was mauled to death, and her three children were attacked, by a pack of dogs outside of a middle school just days before Mother's Day.
The post Georgia Mom Mauled to Death by Pack of Dogs Days Before Mother’s Day appeared first on Breitbart.
A New Hampshire man was arrested for allegedly overturning a port-a-potty, trapping a woman and her child inside.
The post 18-Year-Old Accused of Tipping Port-a-Potty, Trapping Mom and Daughter Inside appeared first on Breitbart.
A suspect who is reportedly transgender is accused of a horrific murder that happened on Woodridge Square Drive in Houston, Texas, on May 3.
The post VIDEO: Texas ‘Transgender Woman’ Accused of Running over Victim Before Kissing, Stabbing Body appeared first on Breitbart.
At least 16 people were shot, two of them fatally, Friday into Saturday evening in Mayor Brandon Johnson's (D) Chicago.
The post Mayor Johnson’s Chicago: 16 Shot Friday into Saturday Evening appeared first on Breitbart.
Tensions rose when anti-Israel protesters with the group Queers for Palestine blocked traffic on Saturday outside Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
The post WATCH: Anti-Israel ‘Queers for Palestine’ Protesters Block Access to Disney World in Florida appeared first on Breitbart.
Former Utica Mayor Louis LaPolla admitted to committing mail fraud and stealing donations meant for a scholarship that he had established.
The post Former Mayor of Utica Admits to Committing Mail Fraud, Stealing Scholarship Donations appeared first on Breitbart.
A convoy of Mexican National Guard soldiers shot at two female political candidates in the state of Jalisco, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) claimed.
The post Mexico’s National Guard Shot at Political Candidates, Says Opposition Party appeared first on Breitbart.
A 22-year-old man has been charged with the murder of a woman at a bus stop in north-west London on Thursday.
The post Jalal Debella Charged with Murder of 66-Year-Old Woman in London appeared first on Breitbart.
The Department of Justice is seeking a 40-year prison sentence for the man convicted of attacking Nancy Pelosi's husband in 2022.
The post DOJ Seeking 40-Year Sentence for Man Convicted of Bludgeoning Paul Pelosi with Hammer appeared first on Breitbart.
Chicago police say a 13-year-old girl was shot by a car owner while allegedly trying to steal the car.
The post Chicago: 13-Year-Old Girl Shot While Allegedly Stealing Car appeared first on Breitbart.
An armed military veteran foiled an alleged jewelry store heist around 11:30 p.m. Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Omaha, Nebraska.
The post Armed Military Veteran Foils Alleged Jewelry Store Heist appeared first on Breitbart.
An Iranian exile was arrested in London after he waved the St George's Cross flag and ate a banana at a pro-Hamas protest in London.
The post Anti-Hamas Campaigner Arrested After Eating Banana, Holding England Flag at London Protest appeared first on Breitbart.
New York City authorities are searching for a man who choked a woman with a belt then dragged her away and sexually assaulted her.
The post Police: NYC Woman Choked with Belt, Sexually Assaulted by Unidentified Man appeared first on Breitbart.
A drug task force seized approximately 25,000 fentanyl pills being kept in a backpack under a baby's crib at a home in San Jose, California.
The post Police: California Couple Stashed 25,000 Fentanyl Pills Under Baby’s Crib appeared first on Breitbart.
The First Capital Command (PCC), Brazil's largest transnational organized crime syndicate and Latin America's largest drug trafficking gang, has managed to establish a foothold in Sydney, Australia, according to a report published by the Argentine news outlet Infobae on Thursday.
The post Report: Brazil’s Top Drug Trafficking Syndicate Gains Foothold in Australia appeared first on Breitbart.
A Maine resident was the recipient of "misdelivered" packages from California containing $2 million worth of fentanyl, police said.
The post Police: $2 Million Worth of Fentanyl Mysteriously Delivered to Maine Resident appeared first on Breitbart.
The sanctuary state of Rhode Island released from jail an illegal alien "got-away" charged with sexually abusing a child in Providence.
The post Sanctuary State Rhode Island Freed from Jail Illegal Alien Accused of Sexually Abusing Child appeared first on Breitbart.
Police say a 16-year-old anti-Israel protester, accused of vandalizing a World War I memorial in New York City, has been caught.
The post VIDEO: Police — 16-Year-Old Anti-Israel Protester Vandalized WWI Memorial in New York City appeared first on Breitbart.
Crime is rising rapidly in New York City due to a wave of President Joe Biden's immigrants, and even NPR admits the trend.
The post NPR Admits Joe Biden’s Immigrants Spike Crime in New York City appeared first on Breitbart.
An 81-year-old Texas man was thrown down an escalator after accidentally walking in on a woman in a dressing room, police said.
The post Police: Elderly Texas Man Thrown Down Escalator After Accidentally Walking into Dressing Room appeared first on Breitbart.
A handbag snatcher is alleged to have stabbed a woman in her 60s, who died from her injuries, as she resisted the theft in North London.
The post ‘Handbag Thief’ Killed ‘Woman in Her 60s’ in London Stabbing, Witnesses Say appeared first on Breitbart.
An illegal alien is accused of causing severe injuries to a three-month-old baby and strangling the baby's mother in Montgomery County, Texas. The baby has since died.
The post Illegal Alien Charged in Connection to Death of Three-Month-Old Baby appeared first on Breitbart.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), along with other Senate Democrats, is again lobbying President Joe Biden to take executive action in giving amnesty to some illegal aliens living in the United States. Cortez Masto's renewed push for such legislation comes a month after one of her staffers was killed allegedly by an illegal alien.
The post Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto Lobbies Biden for Amnesty After Illegal Alien Charged with Killing Her Staffer appeared first on Breitbart.
President Joe Biden's deputies are tweaking the asylum rules to trim their release of killers and criminals into the United States before the 2024 election.
The post Biden Tweaks Asylum Rules to Minimize Media Coverage of Criminal Migrants appeared first on Breitbart.
The people you see in this video are not fit to live in a civilized society. Problem is, I’m not sure we have a civilized society.
The white girl died.
Nothing is going to happen to the black girl who did this with the St Louis prosecutor, who is a Soros DA. https://t.co/pHcS493mCu
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) March 10, 2024
UPDATE: At last word, the victim of this incredibly vicious assault is alive but in critical condition. She was having a seizure on the street and apparently has sustained brain damage. But, at last word, she had not yet died.
FURTHER UPDATE: Per a PL commenter, the school district has released a mealy-mouthed statement that equates perpetrator and victim. But what else would you expect from DEI liberals?
“It is a tragedy anytime children are hurt. Bullying and fighting in the community is an issue for which we all need to take ownership and work towards a resolution for the sake of our children. The Hazelwood School District offers our sincerest condolences to everyone involved, and will offer additional emotional support from our support and crisis team to those in need. We look forward to continuing to partner with our community for the sake of our children. Please be kind and respectful of the families involved during this difficult time and pledge to help work toward the betterment of our entire community.”
The black girl apparently has Hamas status. She’s a victim deserving kindness and respect, just like the girl she put in critical condition.
Condolences to “everyone involved.” Bullshit. One girl beat another girl to within an inch of her life. She may yet die, and she likely will be brain-damaged. The only condolences are due to the victim and her family. As for the rest, the girl who assaulted her should be prosecuted for, at a minimum, attempted murder, and sent to prison for decades. Those who stood by and did nothing can’t, legally, be prosecuted, but they should be shamed and ostracized for the rest of their lives. They don’t need “emotional support” from a “crisis team.” They need to be taught what it means to be a human being. But that obviously won’t happen in the St. Louis public school system or, evidently, in their homes.
ONE MORE: A reader emails to say that the Soros prosecutor in St. Louis has resigned. I don’t know whether that is correct, or whether his or her successor is another pro-crime prosecutor. There are a lot of them around, these days. But I pass his message on for what it is worth.
Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech began almost a half hour behind schedule. The reason apparently was that his route to the Capitol was blocked by an illegal “kill the Jews” protest. So an official government proceeding was delayed by protesters who were violating the law. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Blocking an official proceeding. I think we have recent precedent on this. https://t.co/fxOZ9vxc74
— Josh Holmes (@HolmesJosh) March 8, 2024
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the “kill the Jews” gang to be arrested and held for a year or two in solitary confinement.
You might think that the leftists who run California would be worried about the rapid decline of that state, but no: they are doing all they can to accelerate it. In the Wall Street Journal, Heather Mac Donald outlines California’s latest descent into racialist madness:
What would happen if lawmakers reinvented the criminal-justice system to target “systemic racism” instead of crime? California is about to find out. Thanks to a 2020 law called the California Racial Justice Act, every felon serving time in the state’s prisons and jails can now retroactively challenge his conviction and sentencing on the ground of systemic bias.
To prevail, the incarcerated prisoner need not show that the police officers, prosecutors, judge or jurors in his case were motivated by racism or that his proceedings were unfair. If he can demonstrate that in the past, criminal suspects of his race were arrested, prosecuted or sentenced more often or more severely than members of other racial groups, he will be entitled to a new trial or sentence.
We all know what this is about. Blacks are arrested, prosecuted and convicted more often than members of other races because they commit more crimes. Heather has some of the numbers for California:
In Los Angeles, blacks are 21 times as likely as whites to commit a violent crime, 36 times as likely to commit a robbery, and 57 times as likely to commit a homicide, according to police department data. Those data come from reports filed by victims and witnesses, who are themselves disproportionately black.
Blacks over-offend to an appalling degree in other states, too. But liberals cling to the hoary myth that “disparities” in law enforcement can only be due to racial bias in criminal jutice.
The Racial Justice Act is turning California’ criminal justice system into a farce:
When a felon in San Francisco contested his arrest and prosecution for having a loaded handgun in his car, a “race expert” testified that the arresting officer’s use of the phrase “high crime area” demonstrated “bias against people of color.” The trial judge disagreed, but an appeals court reversed and allowed the felon’s claim to proceed. (Speaking of bias, that same expert, Dante King, asserted at the University of California, San Francisco, on Feb. 8 that “whites are psychopaths” whose “behavior represents an underlying, biologically transmitted proclivity.”)
***
A case from Contra Costa County last year shows the snowballing potential of the Racial Justice Act. A judge found that four black gang members who had committed murder as part of a bloody feud between two Oakland gangs had been improperly sentenced to life in prison without parole. That conclusion wasn’t based on flaws in the four defendants’ trials, but simply on an alleged historical pattern of sentencing bias toward black gang murderers. The black comparison group in the case was made up of 30 black defendants who had also committed gang murder in Contra Costa County from 2015 to 2022 and who had also received life without parole. All 30 can now sue to erase those sentences.
It is hard to understand how there can be a political movement in favor of more crime, but there you have it. In California, that movement evidently represents the majority. If, for some reason, you still live in California, you should get out while you can.
I wrote here about the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley by, allegedly, illegal alien Jose Ibarra of Venezuela. The case has spurred outrage across the United States. Which, I suppose, is why the Associated Press felt the need to spin the story in another–bizarre–direction: “The killing of a nursing student out for a run highlights the fears of solo female athletes.”
If only Ms. Riley had been walking across the University of Georgia campus instead of running, the AP wants us to believe, she would have been safe! It was being an “athlete” that did her in. Ibarra, meanwhile, is described discreetly as an “Athens resident.”
The AP compounds the absurdity of its reporting with this:
Riley’s death has once again put the spotlight on the dangers female runners face. Previously, the 2018 death of University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts while out jogging prompted an outpouring from other women who shared their tales of being harassed and followed.
Mollie Tibbetts, like Laken Riley, was murdered by an illegal alien. What a coincidence! But to the AP, the lesson is that women should avoid running. How about if we close the border instead?
STEVE adds: Isn’t this pathetic excuse pretty close to saying, “She was wearing an awfully short skirt. . .”
As John notes just below, police in Georgia have arrested Jose Antonio Ibarra, “not a U.S. citizen” and not a student at the University of Georgia, where nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was found dead from “blunt force trauma.”
This is not an isolated incident. Consider California, the “sanctuary state” that protects criminal illegals from deportation.
In 2019, a false-documented illegal from Mexico murdered El Dorado County deputy Brian Ishmael, who left behind a wife and three daughters. In 2018, illegal immigrant Gustavo Perez Arriaga, also known as Paulo Virgen Mendoza, murdered Newman, California police officer Ronil “Ron” Singh, a legal immigrant from Fiji who came the America to work in law enforcement.
In 2014, previously deported Luis Bracamontes gunned down Sacramento County police officers Danny Oliver and Michael Davis. In court, the Mexican national said he wished he had killed more cops. Sometimes the victims are innocent children.
In Waseca, Minnesota, Lorenzo Sanchez raped 12-year-old Cally Jo Larson, stabbed her to death, then hung her body from a cord in the stairway. See the Forensic Files episode “The Music Case.” And now nursing student Laken Riley is found dead from blunt force trauma.
If a firearm had been in play, and the suspect a U.S. citizen, Joe Biden might have issued a statement on “gun violence.” At this writing, nothing from the White House on the case, and that comes as no surprise.
“You know, 11 million people live in the shadows. I believe they’re already American citizens,” said vice president Biden in 2014. All the 11 million wanted was a chance to contribute, Biden said, so “let people vote.” Since 2020, Biden has bulked up the imported electorate by some eight million, possibly more, so when illegals commit crimes the Delaware Democrat looks the other way.
This year, millions of illegals will be voting, as they already do in California, with squads of politiqueros bribing or threatening them to vote “a certain way,” code for Democrats. That’s what the Biden Junta wants in November.
Laken Riley was a 22-year-old nursing student in Athens, Georgia. Thursday morning, she went for a run and didn’t return. Her body was found on the campus of the University of Georgia. Riley was murdered by an illegal immigrant from Venezuela:
Jose Antonio Ibarra, 26, who was arrested Friday in connection to the murder of the 22-year-old Augusta University student, crossed into El Paso, Texas, from Venezuela in September 2022, NewsNation reported Saturday, citing Department of Homeland Security sources.
He had been released due to a lack of detention space, the sources added.
Laken Riley
Ibarra is one of millions of illegals whom Joe Biden has deliberately welcomed into the United States, in violation of federal law, the Constitution, and Biden’s oath of office. Biden’s motives are hard to understand. But in the law, one is held to have intended the natural and inevitable consequences of one’s actions. Occam’s Razor, like the common law, implies that Biden is trying to bring chaos and destruction to the United States.
Having entered America with no problem, Ibarra set out for New York. I don’t believe it has been reported how he got there, but he spent a year or so in New York City before relocating to Georgia. His social media accounts suggest that he was living it up:
In September 2022, however, the Venezuelan native looked carefree, smiling in Times Square and Rockefeller Center in New York City, posts on a Facebook account linked to his name showed.
Of course, he got into trouble in New York, too:
Police sources in New York confirmed to NewsNation that a suspect matching Ibarra’s name and age was arrested in the Big Apple for endangering a 5-year-old child last year.
But illegals who commit crimes are rarely punished. Ibarra eventually joined his older brother Diego, who I assume is also an illegal although I haven’t seen this reported, in Athens. The older brother is a criminal, too; he was arrested three times between September and December 2023. Ho hum. Liberals refuse to enforce our laws, until a known criminal commits a crime so heinous that it attracts national attention. Like this one.
So, because Joe Biden opened our southern border, Jose Ibarra waltzed in from Venezuela, spent a year or so hanging out in New York, where any crimes he committed went unpunished, then joined his brother in Georgia. Where, day before yesterday, he saw Laken Riley jogging on the University of Georgia campus and decided it would be fun to kill her. Congratulations, Joe. This one’s on you.
A postscript: the U.S. isn’t the only country dumb enough to admit large numbers of illegal aliens, often referred to in the press as “asylum seekers.” Western Europe has problems even worse than ours, as exemplified by this case:
Police in Vienna launched a criminal investigation after three women were found dead in a brothel, authorities said Saturday.
A witness discovered traces of blood outside the building, located near the Danube River, and alerted police on Friday evening. The bodies of the three victims had “cuts and stab wounds,” police spokesperson Philipp Hasslinger told The Associated Press.
A 27-year-old man was soon arrested in the vicinity of the brothel while carrying a knife, the supposed weapon. Police said the suspect is an asylum-seeker from Afghanistan and will be questioned by police later on Saturday.
The Vienna brothel was legal, but apparently the “asylum seeker” disapproved of it. Hey, some of us may disapprove of it, too. But we wouldn’t murder the women who work there. Open-borders immigration policies have been a disaster wherever they have been implemented.
UPDATE: It turns out that Jose Ibarra had a “wife.” Sort of:
“We got married so we could join our asylum cases,” she told The Post. “He was the person I thought I could see through. We’ve known each other our entire lives.”
So, just another species of immigration fraud. Honestly, though, Ibarra and his “wife” needn’t have bothered. Joe Biden’s welcome mat is out, and everyone is here to stay–especially those who will degrade our country.
Read my latest article over at Breitbart. Before this latest “hate crime” was even vetted or investigated to the slightest degree, the increasingly unfit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exploited it to further the imposition of sharia in Canada. Trudeau ought to be apologizing today and exposing the whole “islamophobia” scam. But to do that would destroy a major part of his agenda. Instead, He called the fake hijab attack “a warning sign of increased intolerance.”
Geller: Another Hate Crime Hoax — Police Find No Evidence of Random Scissor Attack on 11-Year-Old’s Hijab
Another worldwide brouhaha over an “anti-Muslim hate crime” — and then the subsequent media silence after it is exposed as a fake incident.
By Pamela Geller, Breitbart News:
CP24 reported Monday that “after investigating an incident where an 11-year-old girl alleged a man cut off her hijab on her way to school last week, police now say the event does not appear to have happened.”
The non-event, which made international news, supposedly took place last Friday, when “the girl told police that she was on her way to Pauline Johnson Public School in Scarborough when a man dressed in black came up behind her. She said the man pulled off the hood to her jacket and cut off her hijab with a pair of scissors before fleeing the area.”
The Guardian carried the girl’s lies without the slightest critical comment. It “reported” that “an assailant, in two attempts within 10 minutes, cut the girl’s hijab using scissors while she was walking to school with her brother on Friday, a Toronto police spokeswoman said. ‘I felt confused, scared, terrified,’ Khawlah Noman, who is in Grade 6, told reporters at her school on Friday. ‘I screamed. The man just ran away. We followed this crowd of people to be safe. He came again. He continued cutting my hijab again.’”
There’s a lot more. Read the rest here.
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