Trump’s brazen and continuous assault on our criminal justice system has finally paid off for him and his gang, and will continue to do so.
The fact that Paul Manafort could not be convicted on ten counts of well documented fraud and tax evasion because Trump had swayed a single juror verifies has control over the criminal justice system. Past Presidents would never comment on a matter under investigation or on trial. Trump gave almost daily assertions that Manafort should never have been charged or tried or convicted, including while the jury was deliberating. He found his audience in one juror, who blocked conviction, because he or she thought that the whole trial was to get leverage on Trump.
From the public discussion from the one juror who so far went public, it might also have been that the holdout juror opposed a guilty conviction on all charges.
The other way that Trump tampered with the justice system was to continually talk about how nice Manafort was, how old the charges were, how nice Manafort’s family was, and how he was going to consider a pardon, WHILE the trial was going on, and the jurors were deliberating!
Trump’s success in “fixing” this trial will only encourage him to continue such outrageous behavior in future trials that could lead to his record. There also has been little outcry about this tampering.
I am sure that any past presidents who did the same would be considered for impeachment for that behavior ITSELF, regardless of which party they were, or which party the congress was led by.
While I have no legal training, it would seem that this judicial interference would violate the Fifth Amendment, Due Process, and the Fourteenth Amendment, Equal Treatment Under the Law.