Trump's Hush Money Trial Didn't Sit Right With Judge Judy

Maybe it's time for Donald Trump to start hawking "Only Judge Judy Can Judge Me" T-shirts featuring his mug shot, because he can count Judith "Judge Judy" Sheindlin among those who believe his hush-money conviction was complete hogwash.

On her shows "Judge Judy" and Judy Justice," Sheindlin has dealt with myriad legal matters, from the serious to the silly; she might listen to a plaintiff accuse someone of assault one day, and the next, she's rolling her eyes over a complaint about a toilet that broke when a guest sat on it. Judge Judy actually was a judge, so she also gets asked about hot legal topics, such as Trump's hush-money case. On CNN's "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?" she gave her verdict on the matter, saying that she felt like Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had it out for Trump and was pursuing the case as an ego boost. She also argued that the DA's resources would have been better spent elsewhere. "I would be happier, as someone who owns property in Manhattan, if the district attorney of New York County would take care of criminals who were making it impossible for citizens to walk in the streets ... than to spend $5 million or $10 million of taxpayers' money trying Donald Trump on this nonsense," she said. This is the type of sentiment that millionaires who commit white-collar crimes love to see catching on.

Sheindlin also weighed in on how she felt about Trump's presidency, and she didn't exactly give him a glowing review.

Judith Sheindlin's take on Alvin Bragg's case against Donald Trump is that he didn't actually have one. "You gotta twist yourself into a pretzel to figure out what the crime was," she said. But before she started filming "Judge Judy," Sheindlin's area of expertise was family law — the curmudgeonly reality show star never had to oversee a case that dealt with falsifying business records in an attempt to influence a presidential election. It's also nothing like her television trials, where she might allow a dog to decide the outcome of its own custody case.

While Sheindlin might believe that the legal system did Trump wrong, she was no fan of the work he did in the White House. "I don't think that Donald ever should have been president," she said on "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace." Sheindlin endorsed former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley during the GOP primaries, in part because the judge was unenthused about the prospect of a second showdown between Joe Biden and Trump. She wouldn't tell Deadline who she would choose between the two, saying, "I'm gonna have the same nose clip as a lot of other people in this country." 

While Trump hasn't yet earned Sheindlin's endorsement, at least judgmental TV personalities are lining up to back his claim of unfair legal treatment. Ahead of his interview with Trump, Dr. Phil blamed dirty politics for "The Apprentice" host's Manhattan conviction.