This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

For years already, Democrats and other leftists in America have orchestrated a multi-level lawfare campaign against President Trump.

Even while he was president they made wild claims that he orchestrated an "insurrection" against the nation even though the events were just a protest that got out of hand, and even though those charges weren't filed. Nor did they succeed in their two failed attempts to impeach him and remove him from office, even once after he had left office.

But they made claims about business records misdemeanors that were now felonies for Trump, there were paper custody violations that generated a host of felonies against Trump even though almost identical violations by Joe Biden and Mike Pence were dismissed as not worthy of prosecution. They've even alleged he ran a corrupt criminal organization to overturn the 2020 election.

They've run into headwinds with valid arguments that their special prosecutor was appointed illegally, and the Supreme Court ruling presidents are immune to many claims based on their actions in office.

But now a commentator at Fox News is warning they're about to ramp up their war against Trump to the nuclear level, ordering him to jail.

It is commentator Andrew McCarthy who is warning that the judge in the business records case, characterized by Trump critics throughout as a "hush money" complaint, already has signaled his intent to impose a jail sentence.

The case involved Trump's payments to a woman to keep quiet about an "affair" the two were alleged to have had – even though both have denied it.

Those payments were characterized as legal expenses, since the payments were made through a lawyer. Much like Hillary Clinton characterized as legal expenses her payments during the 2016 race to a legal team which in turn hired someone to make up salacious allegations against Trump in what has become known as the Steele dossier, a series of debunked claims.

The judge, Juan Merchan, has refused to step away from the case even though there's an obvious appearance of a conflict of interests as his daughter, a Democrat campaign activist, has been making money off the decisions her father makes in the courtroom against Trump.

"To the surprise of no one, Judge Juan Merchan has yet again denied former President Donald Trump's motion that the judge recuse himself. I am speaking, of course, about the case in which Manhattan's elected progressive Democratic district Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is prosecuting Trump. In early June, a jury found the former president and current GOP presidential nominee guilty on 34 counts of business-records falsification " the commentary started.

"It is not just that Judge Merchan had previously denied the recusal motion. The judge has signaled that, come hell or high water, he intends to sentence Trump on September 18. If you're keeping score, that would be two days after early voting in the 2024 election begins in Pennsylvania," he said.

Trump's lawyers have ammunition for their requests but McCarthy said this is no ordinary case.

"On July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court held that presidents (including former presidents) are (a) presumptively immune from criminal prosecution for any official acts taken as president, and (b) absolutely immune if the official acts are core constitutional duties of the chief executive. The Court instructed that this immunity extends not only to charges but to evidence. That means prosecutors are not just barred from alleging official presidential acts as crimes; they are further prohibited from even using such acts as proof offered to establish other crimes," he explained.

He explained there is no doubt Bragg's case used "Trump's official acts" to support their claims.

"Unsurprisingly then, Trump's lawyers moved post-trial to have the guilty verdicts thrown out based on the high court's immunity ruling," he noted.

Merchan has said he'll issue his ruling soon.

"Most importantly, though, Merchan admonished the parties to prepare for the court to move ahead with the imposition of sentence on September 18. He instructed the lawyers to submit promptly any arguments they intend to make on that subject," McCarthy said.

The logical conclusion is that Merchan already has decided to reject Trump's immunity arguments, and there is "a high likelihood that he will impose a prison sentence against Trump right after that."

McCarthy explained, "I suspect that Merchan will rationalize that Trump (a) was not charged based on official presidential acts, and (b) would have been convicted even if Bragg's prosecutors had not introduced arguably immunized evidence. Such a ruling might be wrong, especially on the latter point (at trial, prosecutors described some of the testimony from Trump staffers as 'devastating'); but Merchan made so many outrageous rulings in the case that it would be foolish to expect him to change course now."

Additionally, he said there's another defense Trump's lawyers can use on appeal: that Merchan refused Trump the right to a unanimous jury decision on the evidence.

McCarthy noted the Supreme Court has affirmed "in criminal cases, important proof elements affecting the potential sentence must be found unanimously by the jury," a right that Merchan refused to allow Trump.

That's critical because "a unanimous verdict on the supposed crime (conspiracy to influence the election by illegal conduct)" was what "Bragg alleged Trump was trying to conceal by falsifying his business records. That crime is what turned a misdemeanor into a felony, and what allowed Bragg to get around the two-year misdemeanor statute of limitations."

He said the main point is that Bragg's prosecution was politics.

"That's why we call it 'lawfare.' The prosecutors and judge are not concerned about whether convictions ultimately get thrown out on appeal. And it's not like Merchan is actually going to put Trump in prison; it is virtually certain that Trump will get bail pending appeal, so Merchan can appear to impose a stiff incarceration sentence without any real incarceration – at least for now, and probably ever."

He said what the Democrats want out of their potpourri of wild claims is "to enable Vice President Harris and the media-Democratic complex to label Trump 'a convicted felon sentenced to prison' just weeks before Election Day."