Is President Trump allowed to defend himself at all?

Not in Justice Juan Merchan's courtroom.

He's not only gagged President Trump at the height of the campaign season, the better to interfere with the election himself, while putting Trump on trial for supposedly just that in 2016, he's also gagged Trump's most important witness, this one from any meaningful testimony that would completely exonerate Trump.

According to Byron York, writing at the Washington Examiner, Trump was required to disclose the hush money payments, made in 2017 through fixer Michael Cohen to porn "star" Stormy Daniels after he won the election, to the Federal Election Commission. Failure to do that is a felony, they claim. However, a former FEC chairman, Bradley Smith, says that's not a campaign contribution and they've never prosecuted for that kind of thing, despite seeing plenty of it around, as in the case of Democrat vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, who paid off a mistress to keep quiet about him. He writes:

Among the things Smith might be able to testify about is the novelty of the current Trump prosecution. Merchan will not allow it. “Defendant seeks to elicit from Smith, among other things, that at the time Cohen paid Daniels, there had never been a case in which anyone had been convicted of a federal campaign finance law violation for the making of ‘hush money payments,'” Merchan wrote. Smith might also be asked about “the facts surrounding the trial of former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, his subsequent acquittal, and that the case was heavily criticized.” Merchan will not allow it.

Other things Smith might be able to testify about are the FEC’s decision to dismiss a complaint against Trump for this very matter and the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute Trump for the same set of actions. But Merchan said Smith cannot say a word about those matters. “That the FEC dismissed the complaint against defendant and the DOJ decided against prosecuting defendant for potential FECA violations are probative of nothing,” Merchan wrote on March 18. “These matters are therefore irrelevant and defendant is precluded from eliciting testimony or introducing evidence or both.”

So Smith can talk about none of that. None of it. The only topics Merchan will allow Smith to “testify generally” on are the “general background as to what the Federal Campaign Commission is, background as to who makes up the FEC, what the FEC’s function is, what laws, if any, the FEC is responsible for enforcing, and general definitions and terms that relate directly to this case, such as for example ‘campaign contribution,'” Merchan wrote.

He's telling Smith what he's allowed to testify about instead of letting New York district attorney Alvin Bragg make those arguments to the jury. He's saving Alvin the hard work of having to defend his flimsy politically motivated prosecution by gagging Trump's best witness.

Victoria Taft at PJMedia points out that this testimony could well make a difference in how the jury views the so-called 'crime' of this argument over bookkeeping entries.

Prosecutors in the "Get Trump" case in Manhattan allege that Trump's nondisclosure agreement payments to two women shaking him down for money were actually federal campaign expenditures. The bookkeeping error they claim Trump made — misdemeanors if they're charged at all — are now, they argue, felonies because Trump did it in furtherance of stealing the 2016 election. Hillary said so. 

So if you're Trump's attorneys, you might say "Hey, let's get that attorney guy, the former Federal Elections Commission Chairman, who wrote that op-ed back in 2018 about how these payments aren't federal elections violations." 

"Great idea," they agreed. But then at pretrial motion in limine, which is Latin for Orange Man Bad, the judge said, well, he can testify, kinda sorta. 

The People’s motion is granted to the extent that Smith may not testify as a lay (fact) witness; offer opinion testimony regarding the interpretation and application of federal campaign finance laws and how they relate to the facts in the instant matter, nor may Smith testify or offer an opinion as to whether the alleged conduct in this case does or does not constitute a violation of the Federal Election Campaign Act.” (He can testify generally about what the law does.)

This is pretty much micromanaging the testimony of an important witness and not allowing him to provide important context to the jury, who will be spoon-fed Alvin Bragg's legally defective version of events, to fulfill his own campaign promise to Get Trump.

But fair, it is not. This is a full-blown kangaroo court at this point, gagging Trump from defending himself about the obvious bias in Merchan's courtroom at the height of a presidential campaign, and then gagging his chief witness for defense who will point out that the crime charged is not a crime.

How can anyone have a drop of respect for this court, which pretty much has been degraded to a Venezuelan-style court given the rigged outcome and the judge obviously in cahoots with the politicized prosecutor?

It can't. It's a complete garbage case that would never stand up in a free country, but can only take the country downhill as this becomes the standard. Something is very rotten in Manhattan these days and most of us can smell the manure of kangaroos coming from it.

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