Following a New York jury’s conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, a Yale law professor suggested there’s another strategy the former president’s legal team could pursue to limit the impact of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case on the 2024 presidential election.
The newly created podcast ” Straight down the middleYale Law Professor Jed Rubenfeld discussed the legal options open to Trump’s defense team in the wake of the jury’s verdict and the appeals process that is expected to begin soon.
The most obvious path for Trump’s legal team to challenge the conviction would be to appeal through the New York Court of Appeals and ultimately to the Supreme Court, a process that Rubenfeld argued could take years to complete and cause “irreparable harm.”
“Of course, that will take years, and that’s a problem. Why is it a problem? It’s a problem because the election has already taken place, and if this conviction is illegal and unconstitutional, it could have an effect on the election,” Rubenfeld, the constitutional law professor, said on the podcast.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr predicts criminal charges against Trump will ‘be overturned’
From left to right: Judge Juan Marchan, former President Donald Trump, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Getty Images, AP Images)
Rubenfeld pointed to surveys that found a “significant number” of voters said they would vote for Trump in the next presidential election even if he was convicted, and said: “If that is true, an unlawful conviction in this case could interfere with and actually determine the outcome of the next US presidential election.”
“Even if a conviction is overturned on appeal years later, the impact can’t be undone. In legal terms, that’s called irreparable harm,” Rubenfeld said.
Rubenfeld suggested that if the convictions were overturned on appeal, Bragg and Judge Juan Marchan would have “illegally interfered in an election and determined the outcome of an upcoming election through unconstitutional means.”
“And years of appeals are not going to affect that,” he added.
Despite media reports, Rubenfeld argued that it’s “not true” that Trump is already a “convicted felon” and that he is “not a convicted felon by jury verdict.”
“There is no conviction until a judge rules that a person is guilty. Right now, in New York, it is highly likely that Judge Marchan will convict Trump on the day that he rules, which will be July 11th.”
Rubenfeld argued that “another avenue” Trump’s lawyers could take to fight a conviction is to file a lawsuit in federal court “seeking an emergency temporary restraining order.”
Explaining what that effort would look like, Rubenfeld said, “In this federal lawsuit, Trump will sue District Attorney Bragg and other state officials, and will ask a federal judge for an emergency temporary injunction to stop Judge Marchan from entering a conviction until a federal court has had an opportunity to consider and preclude the significant constitutional arguments in this case.”
Rubenfeld expressed concern that criminally targeting a former president for an “unspecified” crime “looks bad for our country” and offered his own thoughts on the problems with the case against Trump.
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“Criminal prosecutions of a former president of the United States and a current presidential candidate are a very bad look for our country,” he said. “It’s especially bad when the people bringing the cases and the judges sentencing them are members of the opposing political party. And it’s even worse when the crimes are so unclear that the state conceals the actual charges until the very end of the trial and even during it.”
Former President Donald Trump sits with his lawyers in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 29, 2024, in New York City. (JABIN BOTSFORD/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
“To this day, we don’t know exactly what the jury found Trump guilty of,” Rubenfeld added.
Rubenfeld said anyone who would criminally target a member of the opposing party – in this case, Trump, “the leading candidate in the polls” – “must have that weapon.”
“It’s better not to pursue new legal theories that force you to hide the ball. [and] “It’s not even clear what the charges are,” he said. “This could set a very dangerous precedent for this country. A very bad, dangerous precedent.”
“That’s why it’s so important that a federal court examines the constitutionality of this charge and determines whether it is constitutional,” he added. “The only way that would happen before the election would be for the Trump campaign to file a lawsuit in federal court, asking the federal court to temporarily stay the sentencing until a federal court, and perhaps the Supreme Court itself, can urgently determine whether these constitutional claims can be sustained.”
If that doesn’t happen, “the risk of irreparable harm that I mentioned earlier is exactly what we’re in right now,” Rubenfeld said.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, potentially sending him to prison just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Associated Press)
“But if that were to happen, we could potentially get a ruling from a federal court, or even the U.S. Supreme Court, before the election is held,” he said. “Maybe that’s what the people need, maybe that’s what the law of the country requires.”
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At a trial in Manhattan last week, Trump was found guilty by a jury on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, potentially sending him to prison just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
