Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump's criminal trial in New York is "absolutely corrupt," adding that the business records case is nothing more than a "show trial."
Patrick made a four-minute video he posted to X on Friday after "spending a day with President Trump at trial."
While the trial is in the midst of a recess for the Memorial Day holiday, Patrick took aim at Judge Juan Merchan, beginning with his ruling on Monday that, according to Politico, sharply limited the testimony of defense witness and election law expert Brad Smith.
"He's doing everything in his power to help the jury find a pathway to convict the president," Patrick said in the video. "The judge kept an expert witness on campaign finance from testifying that the president did not break any campaign finance law."
He added: "The president's lawyers asked the judge to give the jury an instruction that there is no campaign violation by the action the president took. The judge said no. In fact, this corrupt judge virtually granted every jury instruction the Biden prosecutors asked for and virtually none of the instruction the Trump team asked for."
Patrick's observation mirrored that of Alan Dershowitz, Harvard Law professor emeritus, earlier this week.
"[Merchan] had already denied the defendant's Sixth Amendment rights over and over again by keeping evidence out that should have come in, although he let everything in in the prosecution's case," Dershowitz told Newsmax on Thursday.
Patrick slammed the trial as something you'd see in a "tin-pot dictatorship in a Third World country."
"No one would ever imagine that this would happen in America," Patrick said. "Remember, there is no crime; there is no evidence of any wrongdoing. But they are persecuting and prosecuting President Trump because they know they can't beat him in November."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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