Judge Juan Merchan has given himself until November 12 to decide what to do with President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing over his felony conviction in the hush money case.
A jury convicted Trump on 34 counts for falsifying business records to cover up paying Stormy Daniels not to talk about their supposed affair.
Trump’s sentencing should take place on November 26.
However, Merchan might throw out the conviction due to the Supreme Court ruling that a president has “at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”
Merchan could sentence Trump to four years in prison. He could also sentence Trump to probation, community service, or even settle for a fine:
But if the judge decides to keep the conviction intact, the former president’s lawyers are expected to ask Merchan to delay Trump’s sentencing so they can appeal. And if that’s not granted, his attorneys are planning to appeal the immunity decision to state appellate courts and potentially all the way to the US Supreme Court to ask the courts to delay Trump’s sentencing until all appeals are exhausted, which could take months.—Any sentence, of course, will be complicated by the fact that Trump is set to take office on January 20, 2025. Trump’s lawyers are likely to shape their appeals to raise constitutional issues challenging whether a state judge can sentence a president-elect, which could tie the case up in courts for years.
I don’t know if the SCOTUS ruling would apply since the supposed payment was made in October 2016, a month before the election.
I’ll look into that more and update the post.
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