'Rigged Charade': Trump unloads on 'corrupt' judge after he's ordered to face sentencing

President-elect Donald Trump continued swinging at Judge Juan Merchan hours after he was ordered to face sentencing in his New York fraud case on Jan. 10 – and also hurled furious attacks at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and special counsel Jack Smith. The incoming president’s Friday evening sound-off on Merchan came as no surprise; Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung issued a fiery rebuke of the justice earlier in the day, calling his boss’s prosecution a “witch hunt." “‘Acting’ Justice Merchan, who is a radical partisan, just issued another order that is knowingly unlawful, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.” He continued: “Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family’s disqualifying and illegal conflicts. I am the only Political Opponent in American History not allowed to defend myself - A despicable First Amendment Violation!” Trump added that “Every Legal Scholar and Pundit” has stated unequivocally “that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought.” He went on to list a handful of names, including Jonathan Turley, Elie Honig and Alan Dershowitz who, according to Trump, all agree with him.