Over the five years that I’ve been writing this blog I’ve had several individuals contact me and tell me that they no longer receive the email that goes out with a new post at 5:00 a.m. and they want to know how to get it back. I, myself, have been a victim of this phenomenon, and I never knew what the issue was. I tried to re-sign-up on the site, I looked in my email junk file, I searched under different names and aliases, but nothing ever fixed it.
I think I stumbled onto the solution this past Tuesday, but I had to wait until I could confirm that it worked before suggesting it to readers.
If you go to https://wordpress.com/reader/subscriptions, you can manage the wordpress subscriptions you subscribe to. In the third column from the right, labeled “Email frequency,” you can see if you’re getting emails “Instantly” or if they have been “Paused.”
Below are four sample subscriptions I have. Notice that the second one down indicates that it has been “Paused.” That was also true of my own blog, which I subscribed to; it said that it was “Paused.” I didn’t know that it was “Paused.” I never “Paused” it. I wasn’t told that it was “Paused.” It was just “Paused.”
Over on the right in each row are three dots (circled). If you click on the dots of the subscription you’re interested in re-starting, it will give you a choice to “Email me new posts.” Click on the button and then choose “Instantly” from the drop down. That’s what I did and now — I’m getting my emails again.
I hope that helps.
The other story I want to touch on is the death of Harrison Ruffin Tyler on Memorial Day.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler, the grandson of John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president, has died at the age of 96.
Harrison Tyler died May 25, according to a statement shared by the Sherwood Forest Plantation Foundation, which operates the Tyler family’s historic home in Virginia.
“A beloved father and grandfather, he will be missed immeasurably by those who survive him. His accomplishments in business changed the lives of countless employees of ChemTreat, the company he co-founded in 1968,” the foundation shared in a statement on Facebook.
“His love of history and his birthplace, Charles City County, VA, led him to preserve both Sherwood Forest, President Tyler’s home, and Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War fortification nearby. He will be remembered for his considerable charm, generosity and unfailing good humor by all who knew him.”
In 2012, Harrison Tyler had a series of small strokes and developed dementia, according to the National Archives.
Incredible. Harrison (and his brother, Lyon) were not only related to president John Tyler (who served as the tenth president of the United States from 1841 to 1845 — 180 years ago!), but were also related to Pocahontas (no, not that one!), who was born c. 1596 and is remembered for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown, Virginia.
Lyon and Harrison were related to Pocahontas through their mother, Sue Ruffin, who “was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and Edmund Ruffin, a prominent planter, Virginia state senator and early advocate for secession.” Edmund Ruffin figures prominently in a book I just finished about the start of the American Civil War, “The Demon of Unrest” by Erik Larson (I enjoyed and recommend).
John Tyler was best known for being the first U.S. vice-president to ascend to the presidency after William Henry Harrison died just a month into his term, his annexation of Texas during his term in office, his support for states’ rights, and his later support for the Confederacy. John Tyler died in 1862 during the Civil War.
Being the ancestry enthusiast I am, I find it fascinating that there could be someone only two “generations” removed from a man who was born during George Washington’s first term still living today. Harrison Tyler (who was named after William Henry Harrison, another relation), spent a lot of time and money on rehabilitating his grandfather’s name, acquiring the historic plantation Sherwood Forest and overseeing its restoration.
Tyler’s later years were marked by dedication to historic preservation. In 1975, he acquired his grandfather’s historic home, Sherwood Forest Plantation, and worked with his wife, Frances Payne Bouknight Tyler, to restore and open it to the public.
In 1996, Tyler purchased and supported the preservation of Fort Pocahontas, a Civil War site constructed by Black Union soldiers. He also donated thousands of papers, books, and $5 million to William & Mary’s history department, which was renamed in his honor in 2021.
Harrison Ruffin Tyler’s death marks the end of the closest living link between us and an historical American figure who lived nearly 200 years ago. It’s a loss that further removes us from our history as it fades from living memory.
As an aside, Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Jr., Harrison’s older brother who died at age 95 in 2020, was known as “a man of deep faith.”
Mr. Tyler was born on Jan. 3, 1925, in Richmond, Virginia, to Lyon Gardiner Tyler Sr. and Susan Ruffin Tyler, and was raised in Charles City County, Virginia. A 1941 graduate of St. Christopher’s High School, Mr. Tyler was 16 when he entered The College of William & Mary, where his father had served as the 17th president from 1888 to 1919 and his grandfather had attended and shared a room with Thomas Jefferson.
Mr. Tyler’s education was cut short when World War II broke out. He joined the Navy and served as an officer in the Pacific theater. At the end of the war, he continued his service in the Navy Reserves, in naval intelligence, and rose to the rank of commander.
His daughter Susan Selina Pope Tyler said that when Mr. Tyler returned from the war, he realized the need to have a Christ-centered life.
In a note read by the Rev. David Wilson during Tuesday’s memorial service at St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church in Nashville, she wrote, “Lyon was a holy man. He was truly an amazing follower of Jesus. He changed his life and the lives of many others.”
As a Christian, I’m grateful for Lyon Tyler’s faith and look foward to meeting him some day.
Perhaps you’ve heard that CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent, Jake Tapper, and Axios national political correspondent and CNN contributor, Alex Thompson, wrote a book called “Original Sin,” about the deception surrounding the “presidency” of Joe Biden.
Since the media — like CNN — was complicit in covering up Biden’s decline, this is like O.J. Simpson looking for Nicole Brown Simpson’s killer.
Now comes word from Alex Thompson that at least one Biden aide admitted that the White House staff did “undemocratic things” because Trump.
A longtime aide to former President Joe Biden admitted that White House staff felt justified doing “undemocratic things” during his term in office because they believed President Donald Trump posed an existential threat to American democracy.
The revelation came during an appearance by Axios reporter Alex Thompson on “Fox News Sunday” with Shannon Bream, where he discussed insider accounts from his reporting on the Biden administration. Thompson described a mindset inside the White House — one in which unelected aides saw themselves as the real decision makers while shielding Biden from scrutiny and managing the presidency behind the scenes.
“If you believe — and I think a lot of these people do sincerely believe — that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things,” Thompson said.
Trump is such a threat to democracy that we’ll violate democracy to save democracy, you guys!
A longtime aide—an unelected official within the Biden administration—admits the staff "acted undemocratically" and claims it was justified because they viewed Trump as an "existential threat" to democracy, according to the book Original Sin.
Nothing says “democracy” like unelected bureaucrats running the country while hiding the flakey husk of the one person “elected” (supposedly) to run the country. This has got to be one of the greatest deceptions perpetrated on the American public in the history of our republic.
What’s amazing is that everyone—including the media, Biden’s handlers, congressmen—denied what was plainly visible to anyone paying attention. Even Jake Tapper:
For four years we had a cognitively diminished life-long politician who had no idea what he was doing and most likely didn’t know, unless reminded, that he held the office of president. And then the cabal that installed him in office planned to win four more years and keep him hidden while offering the occasional “proof of life.”
Thompson also cited a quote from his reporting in which a longtime Biden aide openly admitted the president “just had to win, and then he could disappear for four years.”
“He’d only have to show proof of life every once in a while,” the aide reportedly told Thompson. “His aides could pick up the slack.”
You know, like a hostage situation.
“When you’re voting for president, you’re voting for the aides around him,” the aide said.
Which we decidedly don’t. This is the Left’s version of democracy: an unconstitutional cabal of unelected staffers hiding their policy decisions and political activism from the public like the deceptive criminals they are.
Until I started blogging regularly, I never thought much about the origins of national holidays. My wife and I always celebrated Easter and Christmas with more vigor because of our faith but have tried to make Thanksgiving and days like Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, and July 4th more meaningful by connecting with veterans, or looking up historical speeches and stories and incorporating them in the observances.
Part of why we do that is because we want our kids, and their kids, to remember why we as a nation set these days aside. Schools certainly don’t do a great job of passing along the history and traditions of our culture. It’s up to individual families—parents, really, and fathers, specifically—to make holidays more than just a day off to get more work done or to lounge at the pool.
But to meaningfully pass them along, you need to know the history of them yourself.
Our modern Memorial Day finds its roots in the aftermath of the American Civil War, when citizens would strew flowers on the graves of both Union and Confederate dead. One of the earliest accounts of the practice was from May 1865, a month following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the formal end of hostilities between North and South.
In May 1865, just after the war ended, a large procession was held in the ruined city of Charleston, S.C. There, thousands of Black Americans, many of whom had been enslaved until the city was liberated just months earlier, commemorated the lives of Union captives buried in a mass grave at a former racecourse. The service was led by some 3,000 schoolchildren carrying roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.” Hundreds of women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses, according to historical accounts.
The observance was formalized three years later on May 5, 1868, by Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, who led the Grand Army of the Republic (an organization of Union veterans), calling for a national holiday to remember the Civil War dead on May 30.
Originally called “Decoration Day,” the annual observance broadened after World War I to include all troops who had fallen serving the country, not just those of the Civil War. In 1971, Memorial Day was declared a national holiday by an act of Congress to be observed on the last Monday in May. On it we take “pride in the valor of those who gave their lives in the cause of freedom, and sorrow that such self-sacrifice should have been necessary.”
There are two details about Memorial Day I was unaware of until doing the research for this post. First, the intended focus of Memorial Day is not just remembering and being grateful for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedoms, although that is important. Its original focus was “prayer for a permanent peace.”
(a) Designation.—The last Monday in May is Memorial Day.
(b) Proclamation.—The President is requested to issue each year a proclamation—
(1) calling on the people of the United States to observe Memorial Day by praying, according to their individual religious faith, for permanent peace;
(2) designating a period of time on Memorial Day during which the people may unite in prayer for a permanent peace;
(3) calling on the people of the United States to unite in prayer at that time; and
(4) calling on the media to join in observing Memorial Day and the period of prayer.
I was surprised to discover that prayer was, and is, the express focus of Memorial Day. Our government is “calling on the people of the United States” to pray on the last Monday of May each year. We’re being invited by those who we elect to lead us to pray for a permanent peace.
As a Christian, I’m challenged by this charge. While government is not the Church, shouldn’t we believers be the first to respond to the call to prayer? Which leads me to the second thing I discovered.
Note that under (b)(2) and (b)(3) there is to be a designated time for prayer, and we are to “unite in prayer at that time.” I didn’t know this, but that time is 3:00 p.m. local and is called “The National Moment of Remembrance.”
Not only has our government invited us to pray, but it specifically set a time to be united in prayer for a permanent peace.
Today I will cease all other activity at 3:00 p.m. local time and pray for a permanent peace. I will also thank God for the men and women who have served in our armed forces and have selflessly fought to keep our enemies at arm’s length and to preserve the peace here in our homeland.
Gen. Logan set the precedent in his order establishing Decoration Day.
Gen. Logan’s order for his posts to decorate graves in 1868 “with the choicest flowers of springtime” urged: “We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. … Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”
What could be more important than that? Our freedom is precious, and it comes at a price — a price that we pray we never have to pay — unless we must. And if we must, we will then remember those who valiantly fought to protect and preserve the peace for those of us who enjoy those freedoms today.
Two members of the Israeli Embassy in Washington were fatally shot just after 9 p.m. on May 21 while leaving an event at a Jewish museum. According to police, one suspect has been detained.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky, who served as a research assistant, and Sarah Milgrim, who coordinated trips and missions for Israel. The pair were engaged and about to get married next week in Jerusalem, according to Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter.
Elias Rodriguez, 30, of Chicago, was arrested in connection with the shooting, Pamela Smith, chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, said at a news conference within a few hours of the shooting. The suspect is said to have approached a group of four people and opened fire.
The alleged murderer shouted “Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine!” as he was taken into custody.
A video obtained by Jewish Insider shows the suspected shooter, identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, in the lobby of the Capital Jewish Museum chanting “free, free Palestine” as he is detained by police and removed from the building.
The activist intentionally targeted the couple because they were coming out of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Not only did he shoot them but he stalked them to make sure they were dead.
The suspected terrorist who opened fire on two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, DC, unleashed nearly two dozen rounds at the soon-to-be-engaged couple — with victim Sarah Milgrim attempting to crawl away after collapsing to the ground, according to sources and court documents.
Elias Rodriguez, 31, was caught on surveillance footage firing several shots at Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and Milgrim, 26, before they both collapsed outside the Capital Jewish Museum late Wednesday, according to an arrest affidavit.
The Chicago native leaned over the bullet-riddled couple and continued firing, then followed Milgrim as she made a desperate attempt to escape, shooting her again, charging documents showed.
Rodriguez was seen reloading his weapon before opening fire on Milgrim once more.
Assuming Rodriguez is guilty as charged, I believe the only just sentence is the death penalty. His crime is both a “hate crime” and a terrorist attack. He’s a cold-blooded killer who murdered two innocent people because they represented something he hated: a country and a people who have been victims of violence and hatred for thousands of years.
Two young Israeli diplomats – Yaron Lischinsky, 28, and his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim – were murdered, shot to death at close range, attending an event hosted by the American Jewish Congress in Washington, D.C.
That news was hard enough to take.
But then I learned that Yaron was the brother of Hanan Lischinsky, a friend and a colleague of mine and our team.
Hanan is a strong and devout Israeli follower of Jesus and a very impressive and accomplished journalist who works for ALL ISRAEL NEWS and serves as our News Desk Manager.
Yaron was also a strong follower of Jesus – well-known, well-respected, and well-loved throughout the Israeli Christian community – as well as a veteran of serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, a diplomat working for Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a passionate soccer player.
Yaron and Sarah were not only like-minded, best friends, and madly in love.
They were also planning to get married.
In fact, Yaron had already purchased the ring and the two were planning to fly back to Jerusalem next week to get engaged.
As an evangelical Christian, I rest assured that Yaron and Sarah are now safely in the arms of Jesus. I grieve not only their deaths, but also the hatred that led to such an act. It makes me angry. And while I hope that Rodriguez comes to faith in Christ, I also have a strong sense of justice. May he come to faith before he pays for his crime.
I plead with you to disavow anti-Semitism and refuse to tolerate it at all. If someone says something antisemitic to you, rebuke them. Do not be ashamed of standing up for the Jewish people.
Yaron and Sarah— working together at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C.— were murdered in a terrorist attack outside the Jewish Museum. A young couple with a bright future planning their life together.
The Department of Defense has selected a design for President Donald Trump’s Golden Dome missile defense initiative, Trump announced on May 20.
“I’m pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea, and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
In his first week in office, Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Defense to devise a plan to implement his missile defense proposal.
When Israel got their “Iron Dome” I wondered why we didn’t do the same thing for ourselves. We helped them develop it, so why wouldn’t we apply that technology at home? This goes back to President Ronald Reagan’s SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) that critics called “Star Wars.”
The technology just wasn’t ready at the time, but now it is.
Canada may also partner with the United States to help develop the improved missile defense shield, the president said.
“Canada wants to be a part of it, which would be a fairly small expansion, but we’ll work with them on pricing,” he said.
Canada’s like the kid who pretends not to be impressed by, but also secretly wants to be like, his older brother. #MeToo
In addition to new and improved space-based sensors and interceptors, Trump’s January executive order called for the Department of Defense to consider non-kinetic missile interception technologies such as lasers.
The order also tasked the department with examining methods and technologies for intercepting missile threats before they can launch, or in their initial boost phase.
Trump vowed that the $175 billion missile defense program would allow the United States to effectively counter advanced cruise missiles and hypersonic ballistic missiles.
“Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they’re launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built,” the president said.
I balk slightly at the $175 billion price tag because we still have mountains of debt that we need to get rid of. We also know that initial estimates can quickly double or triple when it comes to government spending.
On balance, however, I approve this effort. Global technology and improved weapon systems are outpacing our current level of countermeasures. We need to defend against Russian and Chinese ballistic missiles, not to mention drone swarms and hypersonic missiles.
Guetlein indicated the Golden Dome is necessary to preserve the safety, security and the quality of life Americans are used to.
“We owe it to our children and our children’s children to protect them and afford them a quality of life that we have all grown up enjoying. Golden dome will afford that,” said Guetlein.
The general said “our adversaries have become very capable and very intent on holding the homeland at risk.”
“While we have been focused on keeping the peace overseas, our adversaries have been quickly modernizing their nuclear forces, building up ballistic missiles capable of hosting multiple warheads, building out hypersonic missiles capable of attacking the United States within an hour and traveling at 6,000 miles an hour, building cruise missiles that can navigate around our radar and our defenses, building submarines that can sneak up on our shores and, worse yet, building space weapons,” Guetlein said.
“It is time that we change that equation and start doubling down on the protection of the homeland.”
Trump’s “Golden Dome” (Trump has a thing for gold, doesn’t he?) is expected to be partially operational by the end of his term. That would be amazing for a government project.
It’s good to be back. My thanks to Bruce Gust for filling in for me over the last week plus. Some of you may know that Bruce and I are childhood friends who grew up going to the same church and participating in many of the same activities. We went our separate ways but have managed to stay connected with both of us being passionate about our faith and the political health of our nation.
The big news coming yesterday was that former (thankfully) Resident Joe Biden has been diagnosed with advanced form of prostate cancer. It’s an unfortunate diagnosis and I do wish him well in his fight against the disease.
The key question I have is this: Did Joe Biden’s inner circle know about this diagnosis last year?
Obviously, questions about Joe Biden’s physical and mental health have been raised for years. Let’s be honest here. Joe Biden had access to top-notch health care while in the Oval Office—with a personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, who, back in 2023, described him as a “healthy, vigorous 80-year-old male who is fit to successfully execute the duties of the presidency.” We all knew that assessment was garbage. Would the same doctor who claimed Joe Biden was “healthy” and “vigorous” also cover up a cancer diagnosis until after the presidential election?
Yeah, I think so.
Let’s face it: everything about the Biden “presidency” was (and is) a lie, including the assertion that he was the “president.” There’s a difference between holding an office and performing the duties of the office, and it’s now being revealed that what every person not in the Democrat cult could see with their own eyes was, in fact, true.
For four years, we did not have a President and the entire media covered it up.
It pales in comparison to any political scandal in the history of our country. https://t.co/ShLWgd2XZK
The Democrats and the media—but I repeat myself—propped up a husk of a man who didn’t have a clue what he was doing. He was a puppet, a cipher, a doorstop, a symbol of the office. And now the whole facade is unraveling.
So, did Biden have prostate cancer while “president” of the United States, and did he have it when he was planning to run again before being unceremoniously kicked out of the race?
We may never know and, even if we did, how could we trust what we’re being told?
The last eight years have been among the most ruinous of our country’s history, largely because of the lies we’ve been told and because none of the liars have gone to prison for their crimes.
So it seems the deep state took a career politician with dementia & cancer, staged a riot to certify his mathematically improbable election, arrested anyone who contested it, sanctioned an invasion, weaponized the courts, silenced speech, and turned the US into sodom & Gomorrah
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) May 19, 2025
In the mind of the person who sees themselves as their own absolute, they justify replacing principles with preferences by saying that they have the right to be happy.
They insist that they can change their gender with their pronouns, they believe they have the right to give away other people’s money, and when it’s time to defend their argument, because they lack reasons and results, they respond with distractions and excuses, and assault the character of those who disagree with them.
Your party was not merely defeated in the last election, they were revealed. Their problem is not their message or their messenger, it’s their motive. They don’t want to improve America, they want to erase it and because they can’t champion that purpose directly, they try to conceal it by using words that are designed to illicit an emotional response.
Hitler, Separation of Church and State, Constitutional Crisis, You Can’t Force Your Beliefs on Me, That’s Your Opinion, Not Everyone Feels that Way…
It works in the short term, but after a while, the perversion, the waste, the entitlement, and the unsustainable irresponsibility accumulates to the point where “truth” is no longer seen as something that can be edited according to one’s manufactured reality as much as it’s something that can only be pursued and enjoyed when you’re willing to answer to something greater
than yourself.
No human being is beyond reproach, but the border is closed, inflation is down, foreign investments are up, conversations are happening, and this from a candidate that is simply doing what he promised to do.
Your rhetoric, your insults, your accusations, are all now being processed for what they are:
Outbursts from a demographic that wants to replace “In God We Trust” with, “You Can’t Tell Me What to Do.”
Before the election last November, there were a lot of conversations about the two candidates and, given the way President Trump was so demonized by the press, it felt like you needed to be able to explain why you were voting for Trump and not just that you were voting for him.
I put this video together to do just that.
Here’s “why” I voted for Trump and here’s why I would do it again…
The final installment of a four part series that looks at the trial that resulted in President Trump being labeled a convicted felon.
Here we go!
#5 Convicted Felon – Trump’s guilt was evaluated according to his having effected the election according to “unlawful means.”
Here’s the problem…
Judge Merchan illegally told the jury they didn’t have to be unanimous which also violated President Trump’s rights.
Juan Merchan
However unbiased Juan Merchan may claim to be, his adversarial perspective on President Trump and the Republican party are obvious given his financial contributions as well as the way in which his daughter stood to gain financially had President Trump lost the election.This is more than just an awkward coincidence. This is a violation of New York State Law pertaining to how political activity and family associations can not be allowed to impact the necessary impartiality that has to characterize the judgement of the one sitting on the bench.
Judge Merchan made financial contributions to Joe Biden’s Presidential Campaign and a Political Action Committee called “Stop Republicans.”14
Judge Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, is the founder and president of a political consulting company called Authentic Campaigns, which provides political services for prominent Democratic Party clients. In a letter from Congress to Ms. Merchan, the Committee on on the Judiciary said, “Experts have raised substantial concerns with Judge Merchan, your father, refusing to recuse himself from President Trump’s case despite your work on behalf of President Trump’s political adversaries and the financial benefit that your firm, Authentic Campaigns Inc., could receive from the prosecution and conviction.15
N.Y. Election Law § 17-152 states, “any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means … shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.” This crime has two elements:
To be guilty, a jury must find the accused: (1) conspired to affect an election; and (2) committed another act by “unlawful means” in furtherance of the conspiracy.
A jury must agree unanimously on the acts constituting elements of a crime. (See U.S. v. Gotti, 451 F.3d 133, 137 (2d Cir. 2006) (“The jury must be unanimous not only that at least two [predicate] acts were proved, but must be unanimous as to each of two predicate acts.”); U.S. v. Carr, 424 F.3d 213, 224 (2d Cir. 2005) (“The jury must find that the prosecution proved each one of those two … specifically alleged predicate acts beyond a reasonable doubt.”).)10
A jury can’t declare someone to be guilty without being unanimous. Despite that being a known precedent, Judge Merchan told jurors, in his verbal instructions to the jury, “Your verdict, on each count you consider, whether guilty or not guilty, must be unanimous. In order to find the defendant guilty, however, you need not be unanimous on whether the defendant committed the crime personally, or by acting in concert with another, or both.11”
While it may sound like the Judge is insisting on a consensus, he simultaneously makes it clear that the jury doesn’t have to be unanimous in which of the three possible manifestations of “unlawful means” were actually committed. Not only is that a gross violation of legal precedent, it’s also a violation of President Trump’s Sixth Amendment right which says that all those accused of a crime have the right to “be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.”12
At every level of this trial, you have a corrupted manipulation of the law…
The Hush Money paid to Stormy Daniels did not have to be filed as a campaign expenditure
There was no violation of Federal Election Law.
The State has no jurisdiction over Federal Elections.
There was no evidence of Tax Fraud
Jury didn’t have to be unanimous on what crime was committed
In addition…
The jury pool is coming from a county that consists of 663,000 registered Democrats as opposed to 66,000 Republicans.13
A key witness for the defense was not allowed to testify
Given Merchan’s political activity as well as his daughter being formally questioned by Congress as to how she stands to benefit financially by Trump’s indictment and defeat (see sidebar), his bias makes his refusal to recuse himself a potential violation of New York State Law standards for recusal which state that judges may not “directly or indirectly engage in any political activity.”16 The rules further state, “A judge shall not allow family, social, political, or other relationships to influence the judge’s judicial conduct or judgment.”17
What Was Donald Trump’s Crime? Liberals have a hard time in saying what Trump was guilty of.
Finally, Michael Colangelo was President Joe Biden’s third-highest-ranking Department of Justice official. He quit to join the Manhattan office investigating Donald Trump on November 18, 2022 – only three days after Trump announced his 2024 run and the same day Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith, and White House attorneys met for eight-hours with Nathan Wade. Colangelo’s association with the case and his nonsensical departure from his prestigious position makes it all the more logical to assume that the Biden White House was instrumental in ensuring that the case against President Trump had the look and feel of something legitimate.
It’s especially suspicious, given the way that Alvin Bragg was apparently reluctant to prosecute President Trump up until Colangelo joining the effort. He was so instrumental in building the case, he actually presented the opening arguments.18
Depending on the media you consume, it’s easy to believe that President Trump was found guilty on 34 felony convictions including what you see above. The problem with the headlines is that they rarely communicate the bottom lines that define the legal substance of, not just the allegations, but even the court proceedings that handed down a guilty verdict.
According to legal experts, Merchan’s standards for a conviction are abnormal. Not only were his instructions vague and illegal, but the prosecution never really made its point. Turley, who was been inside the courtroom, writes. “The jury has been given little substantive information on these crimes, and Merchan has denied a legal expert who could have shown that there was no federal election violation. This case should have been dismissed for lack of evidence or a cognizable crime.”19
Alan Dershowitz was a Democrat up until September of 2024. Prior to that, he supported Hillary Clinton and represented several high profile clients in their legal struggles.
He had a chance to be in the courtroom when Judge Merchan cleared everyone out in order to rebuke Robert Costello. From the perspective of Dershowitz, it was more than inappropriate…
Even if what Costello did was wrong, and it was not, it would be utterly improper and unlawful to strike his testimony — testimony that undercut and contradicted the government’s star witness.
The judge’s threat was absolutely outrageous, unethical, unlawful and petty.
Moreover, his affect while issuing that unconstitutional threat revealed his utter contempt for the defense and anyone who testified for the defendant.
The public should have been able to see the judge in action, but because the case is not being televised, the public has to rely on the biased reporting of partisan journalists.
But the public was even denied the opportunity to hear from journalists who saw the judge in action because he cleared the courtroom.
I am one of the few witnesses to his improper conduct who remained behind to observe his deep failings.20
He goes on to observe how, because the trial wasn’t televised, the only perspective on what happened inside the courtroom was going to be coming from media types, many of who were just as biased as Judge Merchan.
He concludes his observations with a fitting statement that captures everything that falls into the category of the way in which President Trump was not found guilty as a convicted felon as much as he was put on trial as a political target…
“The American public is the loser.”21
1. “Stormy Daniels – Donald Trump Scandal”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stormy_Daniels%E2%80%93Donald_Trump_scandal, accessed January 31, 2025
2. The excerpt from Manhattan prosecutors “Bill of Particulars” references four crimes. However, only three were referenced by Judge Merchan in his instructions to the jury. The fourth one is State Penal Law 175.05 and refers to falsifying business records and is classified as a misdemeanor. It may be that this was considered both obvious and redundant and for that reason, wasn’t referenced by Judge Merchan.
3. “When the judge gags a key witness for Trump’s defense”, Washington Examiner, Byron York, May 6, 2024, https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/daily-memo/2993414/when-the-judge-gags-a-key-witness-for-trumps-defense/, accessed February 22, 2025
3. “Why Is the Judge in Trump’s New York Trial Muzzling a Key Defense Witness?”, “Townhall”, Guy Benson, 5/8/2024, https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2024/05/08/why-is-the-judge-in-trumps-new-york-trump-trial-muzzling-a-witness-for-the-defense-n2638747, accessed February 3, 2024
4. Jonathan Turley, https://x.com/JonathanTurley/status/1795582312073101372, accessed February 1, 2025
5. “FEC drops investigation into Trump hush money payments”, Jordan Williams, 05/06/21, “The Hill”, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/552271-fec-drops-investigation-into-trump-hush-money-payments/, accessed February 4, 2025
6. “The New York State Senate”, “SECTION 17-152 | Conspiracy to promote or prevent election”, https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/ELN/17-152, accessed February 22, 2025
7. “What is the New York election law at the center of Trump’s hush money trial?”, ABC News, Ivan Pereira and Peter Charalambous, May 30, 2024, https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-york-election-law-center-trumps-hush-money/story?id=110678995, accessed February 22, 2025
8. Office of the Law Revision Counsel, United States Code, §30143. State laws affected, https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title52-section30143&num=0&edition=prelim, accessed February 22, 2025
9. Syracuse University, College of Law, “Professor Gregory Germain writes: The Most Important Part of Trump’s Hush Money Case begins Next Week”, Professor Gregory Germain, May 22, 2024, https://law.syracuse.edu/news/professor-gregory-germain-writes-the-most-important-part-of-trumps-hush-money-case-begins-next-week/, accessed February 22, 2025
10. America First Legal, “Legal Errors in the New York Prosecution of President Trump Jury Unanimity”, https://media.aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/01181702/Merged-One-Pagers.pdf, accessed February 22, 2025
11. New York State Unified Court System, “Post Summation Instructions”, https://www.nycourts.gov/LegacyPDFS/press/PDFs/People%20v.%20DJT%20Jury%20Instructions%20and%20Charges%20FINAL%205-23-24.pdf, accessed February 22, 2025
12. Constitution Annotated, Sixth Amendment, https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-6/, accessed February 22, 2025
13. “Election by County”, “New York State Board of Elections”, https://elections.ny.gov/enrollment-county, accessed February 1, 2025
14.Federal Election Contribution, Individual Contributions, https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=juan+merchan&contributor_occupation=judge&two_year_transaction_period=2020, accessed February 22, 2025
15. Congress of the United States, House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary, “Letter to Ms. Lauren Merchan”, https://judiciary.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-judiciary.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/2024-08-01%20JDJ%20to%20L.%20Merchan%20re%20Authentic%20Campaigns.pdf, accessed February 22, 2025
16. Cornell Law School, “N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 22 § 100.5 – A judge or candidate for elective judicial office shall refrain from inappropriate political activity”, https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/new-york/22-NYCRR-100.5, accessed February 25, 2025
17. Casetext, “N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 22 § 100.2”, https://casetext.com/regulation/new-york-codes-rules-and-regulations/title-22-judiciary/subtitle-a-judicial-administration/chapter-i-standards-and-administrative-policies/subchapter-c-rules-of-the-chief-administrator-of-the-courts/part-100-judicial-conduct/section-1002-a-judge-shall-avoid-impropriety-and-the-appearance-of-impropriety-in-all-of-the-judges-activities, accessed February 22, 2025
18. Congress.gov, “Biden’s #3 Man at DOJ Resigned to Join Alvin Bragg’s‘Get Trump’Team on November 18,2022”, Bradley Jaye, JUne 12, 2024, https://www.congress.gov/118/meeting/house/117426/documents/HHRG-118-JU00-20240613-SD012-U12.pdf, accessed February 22, 2025
19. Jonathan Turley, “The Closing: Trump’s Final Argument Must Bring Clarity to the Chaos in Merchan’s Courtroom”, Jonathan Turley, May 28, 2024,
https://jonathanturley.org/2024/05/28/the-closing-trumps-final-argument-must-be-clarity-to-chaos-in-merchans-courtroom/, accessed February 22, 2025
20. New York Post, “I was inside the court when the judge closed the Trump trial, and what I saw shocked me”, Alan Dershowitz, May 21, 2024, https://nypost.com/2024/05/21/opinion/i-was-inside-the-court-when-the-judge-closed-the-trump-trial-and-what-i-saw-shocked-me/, accessed February 22, 2025
21. Ibid
The is is Part III of a four part series that’s looking at the details of the case that was made against President Trump that resulted in him being labeled a convicted felon.
Here’s how the prosecution’s case is constructed…
We’re now on #2, Federal Election Law…
#2 Federal Election Law – The prosecution insisted that Trump’s payment to Stormy Daniels violated Federal Election Law.
Here’s the problem…
The FEC declared President Trump innocent of any wrongdoing involving his payment to Stormy Daniels in 2021.
Statute of Limitations
The crimes Trump was convicted of date back more than five years, but they withstood an initial court challenge because of a pandemic-era extension.Trump was indicted on March 30, 2023, more than six years after the earliest charge in the indictment, which dates to Feb. 14, 2017. That’s beyond the five years typically allowed by the statute of limitations, but there’s a catch: Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo extended the time limit to file charges in all criminal cases when courts were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Trump’s lawyers moved to dismiss the case in its early stages based on the statute of limitations, but Merchan rejected the argument. In a pretrial decision, the judge said the pandemic extension stretched out the deadline for the prosecution by one year and 47 days.
“In other words, this felony prosecution had to be commenced within six years and 47 days from when the crimes were allegedly committed,” Merchan wrote.
Trump was charged within days of the potential deadline. The extension “brought the conduct described in the indictment within the prescribed five-year time limit,” Merchan wrote. (USA Today)
The Federal Elections Commission (FEC) had closed its investigation into whether former President Trump illegally made hush money payments to women prior to the 2016 election.
The FEC voted 4-1 to close the inquiry after failing to find that Trump or his campaign “knowingly and willfully” violated campaign finance law when his former attorney Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her from disclosing an alleged affair.5
The FEC declared President Trump innocent of any wrongdoing involving his payment to Stormy Daniels in 2021. Yet, the State of New York decided to ignore that verdict and attempted to charge him with the same crime in 2024.
Another weakness in the prosecution’s case is the fact that President Trump’s alleged violation happened six years ago – a full year beyond the state’s statute of limitations. While a provision was made to extend that timeframe, given the way courts were disrupted by COVID-19, the fact that under any other circumstance, the prosecution’s case would never have made it to trial.
Bear in mind that a falsified business record is a misdemeanor. In order for it to be classified as a felony, the prosecution had to allege that the money was intentionally misrepresented in order to conceal another crime. But not only did that misdemeanor have to be linked to another crime in order for it to qualify as a felony, it had to be asserted as a felony in order for an exception to the statute of limitations to apply.
#3 State Election Law – According to Judge Merchan, New York State Election Law Section 17-152 was violated.
Here’s the problem…
State courts have no jurisdiction in cases such as this as defined by the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971.
Again, in order for the 34 counts of falsified business records to resonate as felonies, it has to be proven that they were falsely documented in order to conceal another crime. The prosecution asserted that one of the three possible crimes was a violation of New York State Law Section 17-152 which refers to a “Conspiracy to promote or prevent election.” It goes on to say that, “Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”6
At one point, Judge Merchan elaborated by saying, “Under our law, a person is guilty of such a conspiracy when, with intent that conduct be performed that would promote or prevent the election of a person to public office by unlawful means, he or she agrees with one or more persons to engage in or cause the performance of such conduct.”7
The problem, however, is that the state has no jurisdiction when it comes to Federal elections. In other words, if the FEC declares that the money paid by President Trump to Michael Cohen was not in violation of the law, that ruling supersedes and preempts any provision of State law with respect to election to Federal office.8
Judge Merchan and the prosecution were completely wrong in making a violation of State Election Law as part of the trial because Federal Law renders any attempt on the part of the state to override a Federal ruling a moot point.
#4 Tax Fraud – Prosecution accused President Trump of tax fraud when he disguised payments to Michael Cohen.
Here’s the problem…
The DA introduced no evidence to support the claim and the court didn’t rule on the issue.
In his legal review, Professor Gregory Germain elaborated on the issue of tax fraud as presented by the prosecution:
Early in the case, the District Attorney suggested that Trump might have been disguising the payments to commit tax fraud. But the DA introduced no evidence to support that claim. Trump asked Judge Merchan to prevent the District Attorney from arguing the tax fraud point. The District Attorney argued that falsifying the payment as income to Cohen rather than a reimbursement was a “tax law violation,” but Trump pointed out that there is no evidence that anyone received a tax benefit from the characterization. The court did not rule on the issue.9
So, however “tax fraud” might’ve been documented in the prosecution’s “Bill of Particulars,” it was never proven let alone discussed.
