The Manhattan District Attorney's Office announced Monday that it will oppose putting President-elect Trump's Jan. 10 sentencing on his New York state criminal conviction on hold ahead of his return to the White House.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo argued in a new filing. Submission to court President Trump's intention to appeal Judge Juan Melchán's ruling that found the conviction valid should put a pause on the case, especially since it is the only proceeding in which the verdict remains. It does not mean that.
“There is no risk here of an 'extension proceeding' that would prevent Defendant from performing his official duties, any official duties that Defendant does not have by January 20, 2025,” Colangelo wrote.
Marchan ruled last week that Trump's sentencing could be moved up this Friday, even as Trump's inauguration approaches, with an election victory marking the end of the case. He rejected the president-elect's argument that he should.
The judge had previously indicated that he would grant Trump an unconditional discharge from office, which would allow him to be convicted without any penalty. He said he did not intend to sentence the president-elect to prison, given concerns about immunity from criminal prosecution upon taking the oath of office.
Mr. Colangelo cited the high likelihood that Mr. Trump would be released unconditionally as a reason why he would not be penalized by ending the case on Friday. In fact, prosecutors said a subsequent ruling would allow Trump to formally pursue the appeals he has repeatedly promised to pursue.
“And the current schedule is entirely in response to the defendant's repeated requests to postpone the sentencing date, which was originally set for July 11, 2024. Don't listen to us complain about the damage caused by the delays we've caused,” Colangelo said.
Trump's lawyers argued that all proceedings in the case should be automatically suspended because of his intention to appeal Marchand's recent decision.
The justices ruled that Trump's victory in the November polls did not require the conviction to be thrown out, and that the guilty verdict would withstand the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.
“The court should cancel the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and postpone any further deadlines in this case until President Trump’s immunity appeal is fully and finally resolved. “This lawsuit should then be dismissed, but this lawsuit should never have been filed in the first place,” they wrote in a filing made public Monday morning.
A New York jury indicts Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to keep her alleged affair a secret before the 2016 presidential election. convicted.
This is the only criminal case against Trump that went to trial. Since his election victory, his two federal cases have been dropped and his Georgia charges have been left in limbo after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) was disqualified from the case. It's still there.
