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Donald Trump has been ordered to appear for sentencing on January 10 in the criminal “secret money” case in New York, days before his second term in the White House.
Judge Juan Merchan's decision on Friday deals a symbolic legal blow to… Trump It sets the stage for a scene in a lower Manhattan courtroom just weeks before the president-elect returns to the White House. However, the judge noted in Friday's order that Trump would not face prison time as a result of his conviction, and said he could attend the sentencing hearing virtually if he preferred.
A spokesman for Trump's transition team said the order was “a direct violation of the Supreme Court's decisions.” Immunity decision and other ancient jurisprudence” and that “there should be no ruling.”
“President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and carry out the vital duties of the presidency, unhindered by the remnants of this or any remnants of the witch hunt,” Stephen Cheung said. “President Trump will continue to fight these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
The hush-hush case is one of four criminal cases filed against Trump after his first term, and the only one that has reached trial. And last year, after a seven-week trial in New York state court, he was He was convicted of 34 criminal charges He was accused of falsifying business records in what prosecutors alleged was a scheme to buy the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels, with whom he was having an affair. This was the first time a former president had been convicted of a crime.
The sentencing has been repeatedly postponed as Trump seeks to return to the presidency, and again after his November election victory against Kamala Harris.
Trump's legal team had argued that the case should be dismissed following a US Supreme Court decision that found presidents are entitled to broad legal immunity for their official actions. Meanwhile, prosecutors wanted the judge to wait to sentence Trump until after his presidential term ended.
Merchan said in his decision that the conduct at issue in the money case is not protected by presidential immunity. However, he acknowledged that “presidential immunity will likely apply once the defendant is sworn in.”
Therefore, Merchan concluded that Trump should be sentenced before his inauguration on January 20, putting “end” in the case and allowing the president-elect to pursue further appeals.
Merchan stressed that he was not seeking to take the unprecedented step of ordering the imprisonment of the president-elect.
“While this court, as a matter of law, must not make any decision on sentence before giving the parties and the defendant an opportunity to be heard, it seems appropriate at this stage to state the court's inclination not to impose any sentence of imprisonment,” he wrote. Which was approved by the conviction, but the people acknowledged that they no longer viewed it as a practical recommendation.”
Instead, Merchan said he was leaning towards imposing what is called unconditional release, which would essentially allow Trump to walk free and not face any probation or fines.
Friday's decision was the latest development in Trump's various criminal legal sagas, which have largely evaporated since his reelection. Jack Smith, the Justice Department special counsel charged with overseeing investigations into Trump, has already dropped two federal criminal cases — one related to alleged interference in the 2020 election, and the other involving classified documents found on Trump's Mar-a-Lago property — citing a Justice Department policy prohibiting… Trial of current presidents.
The fourth case, filed in Georgia over an alleged conspiracy to interfere with the state's election results in 2020, is thrown into disarray after an appeals court… ineligible The Fulton County District Attorney was the one who brought her in.
However, Trump is still involved in civil lawsuits. He is on the hook for more than $450 million after it emerged that he inflated the value of his assets to banks in order to obtain favorable loan terms. He was also ordered in two different cases to pay more than $88 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, who alleged that the president-elect sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her afterward.
Trump is appealing these civil rulings. A federal appeals court upheld one of Carroll's rulings earlier this week.
