I am not saying that Judge Merchan should lock Trump away in some KGB mental hospital, as happened to the political opposition in Stalin’s Soviet Union. But I am pointing out that while New York State court has jurisdiction over convicted felon Trump, the judge has both the right and the obligation—before issuing a sentence—to find out if the defendant has understood the charges that were brought against him. (From his endless press conferences during his trials, Trump sounds clueless about the facts in his own cases.)