Donald Trump spent the days before his inauguration raging that he was being held accountable for his crimes — specifically, that he was going to be sentenced for falsifying business records regarding the hiding of hush money paid to Stormy Daniels — and Newsmax was there to amplify his whining. Mark Swanson wrote in a Jan. 9 article:
President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he appreciated the “time and effort” of the U.S. Supreme Court to consider his 11th-hour appeal to delay sentencing in New York after his conviction for falsifying business records.
Trump took to Truth Social after the high court declined to delay Friday’s sentencing by Judge Juan Merchan in Manhattan. Merchan has indicated he will not give Trump jail time, fines, or probation.
That’s of no consolation to Trump, who continued to rail against Merchan for trying the case in the first place, citing the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer that he should have immunity for official acts as president.
“I appreciate the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me by the highly conflicted ‘Acting Justice,’ who should not have been allowed to try this case,” Trump wrote. “Every Legal Scholar stated, unequivocally, that this is a case that should never have been brought. There was no case against me. In other words, I am innocent of all of the Judge’s made up, fake charges.”
Swanson made no apparent attempt to fact-check anything Trump said — specifically, whether “Every Legal Scholar” really did state that the case “should never have been brought.”
The next day, Trump did receive any punishment in his sentencing, but Newsmax left that to a wire article. Despite that, Trump still whined about it, which the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy dutifully parroted in a Jan. 10 article:
President-elect Donald Trump took to social media shortly after being sentenced in his New York criminal case Friday and said he will appeal and seek a dismissal of the entire “hoax.”
Trump appeared remotely with his attorney and was formally sentenced Friday on his felony conviction of falsifying business records, but Democrat Judge Juan M. Merchan declined to impose any punishment.
The outcome cements Trump’s conviction while freeing him to return to the White House unencumbered by the threat of a jail term or a fine.
“The Radical Democrats have lost another pathetic, unAmerican Witch Hunt. After spending tens of millions of dollars, wasting over 6 years of obsessive work that should have been spent on protecting New Yorkers from violent, rampant crime that is destroying the City and State, coordinating with the Biden/Harris Department of Injustice in lawless Weaponization, and bringing completely baseless, illegal, and fake charges against your 45th and 47th President, ME, I was given an UNCONDITIONAL DISCHARGE,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
It was not explained why it’s “unAmerican” to prosecute criminals. Sandy Fitzgerald then quoted another Trump mouthpiece in a separate article that day:
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction and sentencing in New York on felony charges of falsifying business records as a “politically motivated and contrived witch hunt” and applauded Trump’s plans to appeal the case.
“This entire case against President Trump has been a politically motivated and contrived witch hunt aimed solely at preventing him from returning to the White House,” Johnson, R-La., said in a statement. “It was never about the facts, and it should have never been brought in the first place.”
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan formally sentenced Trump Friday to an unconditional discharge, meaning he will serve no time or be ordered to pay any fines.
[…]Johnson accused Merchan of having “grossly perverted the American legal system” by “manipulating existing law in a purely partisan effort to convert a bogus misdemeanor charge into a felony.”
Johnson added that Merchan “and the deranged prosecution have done untold damage to our justice system.”
The American people, “the only jury that matters” saw through the “corruption of justice, spoke decisively and rejected their weaponization of government,” Johnson said.
If the prosecution was “deranged,” it would have been thrown out of court — but it wasn’t. And, of course, popular opinion does not determine guilt or innocence in the legal system.