Following his landslide election victory, President-elect Donald Trump is scheduled to be sentenced in his Manhattan criminal case later this month, with Chief Justice Juan Melchán making his first appearance following the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision earlier this year. The court decided whether to dismiss the charges completely.
Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records after a Manhattan criminal trial in May. District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office says Trump paid $130,000 to former porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election to silence her claims about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006. He sought to prove that he had falsified business records to conceal dollar payments. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case. case.
President Trump's sentencing is scheduled for November 26, already four months late from the originally scheduled July 11 date.
Mr. Trump's lawyers filed a lawsuit after the Supreme Court ruled in July that former presidents have effective immunity from prosecution for official actions taken while in office, but not for unofficial actions. It had called on Marchan to overturn the former president's guilty verdict in New York v. Trump. Marchand is scheduled to make a ruling on the charges by November 12.
“A normal judge would dismiss this case. The DA's office then needs to determine what's left so we can consider re-filing this case.” But Judge Marchan has shown himself to be just a normal judge. So the catch-22 here is that if he were normal, he would dismiss it, but he is. teeth They'll probably deny it because it's not normal, but since it's a disclaimer, that gives Trump's defense team a right, a legal right, to immediately appeal his denial. We should,” Curry Stimson, deputy director of the Heritage Foundation's Edwin Meese III Center for Law and Justice Research, told FOX News Digital.
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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, takes the stage to address supporters during a rally at the Palm Beach County Convention Center on November 6, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)
Stimson said the president-elect would not be jailed even if Marchand denies Trump's immunity claim, the Trump campaign appeals the decision and the appeals court rejects Trump's claims. .
“For all intents and purposes, no matter what happens [Merchan] The defendant denies it, and the appellate court follows the judge, who then sentences him. Even then, the Department of Justice will come and say, “Under the Supremacy Clause, you can't impose criminal penalties, especially incarceration on a sitting president.'' As a result, the case will be frozen until President Trump leaves office. But as a practical matter, this case and the Fanny Willis case are over,'' he said.
Judge Juan Mercian poses for a photo in his New York courtroom on Thursday, March 14, 2024. (AP)
Mr. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and denied any such relationship with Mr. Daniels. The current president-elect slammed the trial as a “phony” and called Marchan “corrupt” and “divisive,” appearing to refer to the judge's family ties to the Democratic Party. President Trump also blasted the lawsuit as a “legislation” pushed by the Biden-Harris administration to undermine his chances of success in the 2024 presidential election.
President Trump cannot pardon himself because his inauguration was a national incident.
Former President Donald Trump appears with members of his defense team for his arraignment on charges stemming from an indictment by a Manhattan grand jury in New York City, April 4, 2023. Reuters/Andrew Kelly/Pool (Reuters)
Stimson went on to say that given the Supreme Court's ruling on immunity, he took a scalpel to the case and added evidence related to President Trump's first White House administration and “official acts” in that capacity related to his life. He continued, saying that it would be impossible to remove the evidence. before he became president.
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”[Merchan] is not a traditional judge, but he won't say Trump doesn't have immunity. . . The nation's highest court has said that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for acts of official conduct, so presidents will need to realize that the question is whether they have the temperament and judgment to do so. But the president, at least so far, has proven otherwise. “It's about applying it in a fair and impartial manner and dismissing the charges,” Stimson told Fox News Digital.
“Dismissing the charges just puts the ball back in Alvin Bragg's court. If Alvin Bragg wants to double down on his stupidity, which he has done many times, he can do it.” [reopen the case]. However, the president will have been in office by then, so that won't do much. “And the Department of Justice will operate on the Supremacy Clause, which says that a sitting president cannot bring his own case, his criminal case, against a president while he is president,” he continued.
Judge Murchan postpones President Trump's sentencing until after election
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records on Thursday, May 30, 2024 in New York. (AP/Seth Wenig)
FOX contributor and former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Andrew McCarthy also wrote in a FOX Digital op-ed this week that Trump will not face prison time in the case.
“Please understand, even if Mr. Marchand is sentenced to prison, Mr. Trump will not go to prison. Although the charges are felonies, they are not serious enough under New York law to warrant immediate detention. Mr. Trump will receive bail pending appeal,” he wrote.
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“Given that Mr. Trump will not be sent to Rikers Island by a Manhattan judge in any case, it would be wise to postpone sentencing and allow Mr. Trump to proceed with his immunity appeal. “That way we can avoid the embarrassing situation of putting our next president in prison, where the United States will convict and sentence him when he takes office,” he continued.
“The law has been terrible for this country, and the great victory the American people gave Trump should mark its end,” McCarthy added later in the article.
