Julian Epstein, the former Democratic chief counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, defended President-elect Donald Trump Friday on Fox Business and slammed what he said was the ‘gross abuse’ of justice in Trump’s case.
During an appearance on “The Evening Edit,” Epstein said the case was not handled correctly. He said he believed the case never would have occurred had the defendant been anyone other than Trump. The former counsel said he was dismayed over what he called procedural and ethical lapses that marred the prosecution.
“This is essentially a gross abuse of the justice system. The unconditional discharge today is the judicial equivalent of saying never mind. They put the country through this for two years, all for naught. It’s an abuse of the legal system because no American ever in the history of this country has been prosecuted on this fact pattern, and your viewers don’t need to know anything else other than that,” Epstein told host Elizabeth MacDonald. “If Donald Trump’s name was something other than Trump he would have never been prosecuted. The judge was conflicted. The prosecutor was conflicted.”
Epstein said there was a lack of clear notice regarding the actual charges.
“It will be reversed on at least three different grounds. There was never any notice as to what the actual charges were. The jury was able to pick from a menu of possible offenses. There was no unanimity requirement in the jury decision, and the reason it was such a gross abuse was because to the extent that this involved federal campaign finance charges, there is nothing in federal campaign finance law that says hush money is a reportable offense, as Alvin Bragg alleged,” Epstein said.
“You have former chairs that the judge would not let testify. That has been very clear for chairs of the FEC that have said that hush money is not a reportable expenditure, that things like that are not reportable expenditures.”
The former counsel criticized the Democratic Party for not speaking out against what he said was a politicization of the justice system under the Biden administration.
“The fact that more Democrats like myself are not calling this out is just a testament to how the justice system has been politicized during the Biden years,” Epstein said.
Epstein then talked about how Republicans might respond.
“The Trump Justice Department can go in and find minor violations and infractions all day long of Democrats, and they can prosecute them criminally under the same bogus theories. And now the Democrats who have been preaching piously about protecting democracy have to rely on Republicans to break the cycle of politicizing the justice system, which the Republicans would be sort of tit for tat in their right to be able to say ‘You did it to us, and now we’re going to do it to you,’” Epstein said.
Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge, avoiding fines, jail, or probation while officially declaring him a convicted felon. At the hearing, Merchan said that the “extraordinary” legal protections afforded to the president of the United States necessitated a lesser sentence, which he implied Trump would not have received had he not been reelected.
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony charges in May for falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement with former porn actress Stormy Daniels. Daniels said that she and Trump engaged in an affair in 2006. The judge ruled that an unconditional discharge would respect the jury’s decision without “encroaching” on the executive branch.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America
