Providentially, Judge Juan Merchan has partially lifted his gag order on Donald Trump. Trump is now allowed to criticize Merchan and the jurors who convicted him of a nebulous “crime” in the New York bookkeeping case. Trump might want to use his newfound First Amendment freedom to foil Joe Biden’s predictable claim, at the upcoming first presidential debate, that in his America, everyone is treated equally under the law -- not only was Donald Trump convicted of a crime, but so was Hunter Biden. This claim is false, as Trump is fully aware. But now Trump can make a big new point about Democrat tyranny and effacement of the rule of law.

Judge Merchan donated a small amount of money to a Democrat campaign in 2020. Guess whose, but the who-to is actually irrelevant as long as it was to a Democrat. We are supposed to believe the small amount that was donated to the Biden campaign ($35) excuses an action which is, for a sitting judge, seriously impermissible, and furthermore to believe that the small amount donated makes it a slap-on-the-wrist kind of thing, at most.

But think about it.

Trifling though the amount of Judge Merchan’s donation to a political campaign was, it signaled, and was presumably intended to signal, the judge’s willingness to engage in political nefariousness in the courtroom. It’s extraordinary for a sitting judge to contribute any amount of money to a political campaign, and naturally judges are forbidden to do it. Merchan knew this, but he nevertheless decided to blow past that very crucial impartiality guardrail. Why? With that simple question we have arrived at the crux of the matter, albeit a surprisingly neglected crux of the matter.

If, despite the strict rule against judicial money contributions to political campaigns, a judge gives however paltry an amount of money to a campaign, the contribution precisely signals to his party’s movers and shakers that he or she is willing to play politics from the bench, in as more or less Machiavellian a way as needed.

In this case, since the amount is too small to make a difference in the election (though it might be enough to help him get a promotion), and since Judge Merchan knows he is breaking a cardinal rule for judges, what this says is: “Want to nail Trump by hook or by crook? I’m your guy. Get me in place to do it, or keep me there, and unwaveringly support me so that the state bar association dare not come after me at any time, then to the extent that it’s possible -- which I might or might not need your help with, as far as putting all the preconditions in place -- it’s a done deal.”

All this is surreptitiously understood by Democratic Party officials in Albany and Washington, D.C., which is the whole point of it -- tiny amount of money or no. Merchan had to know that, for he’s neither naive nor a dummy.

If Trump has a chance to point this out during the debate, it will be enormously educative for the public. What’s Biden going to say? “How dare you! Judge Merchan is a man of undoubted integrity”? That will really be throwing down the gauntlet, but not in a way that is likely to help Biden get re-elected. For it will put the spotlight squarely on Democrat lawfare, in such a plain manner that our morally compromised media will not be able to ignore it or deny the significance of it.

Image: Udo J. Keppler, LoC