Judge Merchan Abruptly Labels Trump Case ‘Federal Insurrection Matter’

Yup, I did a double-take on that one, too.

The headline in Donald Trump’s imminent “hush money” trial, which starts in Manhattan in just eleven days, is that Judge Juan Merchan rejected the former president’s eleventh-hour claim of immunity from prosecution and refused to delay the trial until after the Supreme Court decides Trump’s federal immunity claim — which may not happen until June. Merchan’s ruling was not surprising, and his reasoning that Trump waited too long — in violation of state criminal-procedural law — to raise a claim he should have raised a year ago is sound.