Trump Wants Court to Delay Friday’s Sentencing in Hush Money Case
Trump has appealed Judge Merchan’s decision not to throw out the guilty verdict.
President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers have appealed Judge Juan Merchan’s rulings not to dismiss charges against him in the hush money case and stay his Friday sentencing.
The lawyers asked Merchan to stay the sentencing because Trump appealed the judge’s decision. From The Hill:
“By virtue of President Trump’s filing of appellate proceedings raising his claims of Presidential immunity, all proceedings in this Court are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the new filing, which was made public on Monday.
“In the alternative, even if such a stay were discretionary, the Court should grant such a stay. The Court should vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all further deadlines in the case until President Trump’s immunity appeals are fully and finally resolved, which should result in a dismissal of this case, which should have never been brought in the first place,” they continued.
A jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records to pay off Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their alleged affair.
Merchan refused to throw out the guilty verdict, scheduling the sentencing for January 10, ten days before the inauguration.
Trump’s lawyers want Merchan to stay the sentencing since they plan “to appeal the decision the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court.”
The lawyers argued the appeal triggers an automatic stay.
But if the appeal does not stay the proceedings, the lawyers argued, “Merchan should then grant a pause and prevent sentencing from happening on Friday as scheduled.”
However, Merchan hinted that Trump won’t face any punishment.
Merchan said it’s “proper at this juncture” to let everyone know that it’s the “Court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorized by the conviction but one the People concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation.”
“As such; in balancing the aforementioned considerations in conjunction with the underlying concerns of the Presidential immunity doctrine, a sentence of an unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options,” Merchan added.
In New York, an unconditional discharge means the court found someone committed the crime, but thinks a punishment doesn’t serve a purpose.
That means Trump won’t serve prison time, fine, or probation supervision.
However, it means Trump will be a felon.
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As I understand it, Color of Law also applies to judges, is that the case?
Don’t think so, unless you can cite a case where a judge was ever punished for his/her on bench behavior
You mean like Judge Michael Conahan who was recently pardoned by President Biden, but had been convicted in the “Cash for Kids” scandal where Conahan was receiving kickbacks to sentence kids to a juvenile camp and was removed from the bench and sentenced to more than 17 years?
Thanks, Merchan did enrich his daughter
He also violated the NY state judicial ethics rule banning judges from contributing to political efforts. It was only (IIRC) $15.00 to the Biden campaign, but it was a violation none the less. And Merchan proved that it mattered not one whit (at least as long as the donation is to a Democrat).
Here in Arizona, we seem to have had a serious run of that. The rest depends on what qualifies as “punishment.”
I asked grok to make a picture of Kathy Griffin holding Merchan’s severed head and text saying “This is still funny, right?”
It did it but the picture sucks… 🙂
How about a pix of Pocahontas holding the head with the caption: “You can only push people so far!”?
Merchan will do whatever he can do to screw Trump. After Trump becomes President, can he have the DOJ investigate Merchan for whatever federal infraction he may have committed?
Ivan Raiklin is a member of General Flynn’s team
He has a list of High Value Deep State Targets, as well as the regular list.
The press will refer to these as enemy lists, but they have committed high crimes and crimes against humanity
http://www.nurembergtwo.com
For the Feds to make any kind of case against Merchan, they would have to demonstrate he was engaged in some kind of public corruption conspiracy; IOW, they would have to produce evidence Merchan was bribed or extorted to behave the way he has. Simply making demonstrably incorrect and/or partisan judicial rulings won’t be enough. Unfortunately, the law gives TREMENDOUS latitude to judges who are partisan hacks or are simply incompetent.
If Dems could do J6 crap, I am certain that this judge can also receive special attention.
It is important that every Dem who has stepped this far out of line pay. That is what will discourage future bad behavior.
What about the conspiracy to deprive Trump of his civil rights? 🤔🤷♂️
well his actions did enrich his daughter
I was thinking more along the lines of illegal campaign donations.
What would that clown do if Trump simply fails to appear?
If Trump actually was the lawless person the Marxists claim, this is exactly what he would do. But we all know that’s not who he is.
This will eventually all be reversed on appeal. The bind Trump is in is that the appeal cannot be filed until after sentencing. Understandably, he’s trying to avoid being sentenced because without sentencing, he’s not actually ‘convicted.’ But, there really isn’t any other way around it because it’s clear Merchan isn’t going to dismiss the charges even though he should. So, we’ll be stuck for an additional 18-mos (roughly) as the media and all Trump critics will refer to him as a felon.
“ without sentencing, he’s not actually ‘convicted.’ ”
That’s not an accurate statement of the law.
Yes, it is. Two things happen at sentencing. The order of sentence is obviously entered by the judge. But, before that, an order of conviction is entered. Absent that order of conviction, no one is convicted. Judges will sometimes set aside the jury’s finding of guilt and rather than enter an order of conviction, the judge will enter a judgement of acquittal. The defendant will then never have been convicted irrespective of the jury’s finding of guilt.
I should add that the judge can dismiss the charges for other reasons as well. That’s an option that is available to Merchan and is the one that he should have taken because of the Supreme Court decision that was handed down during this trial.
What a party hack like Merchan should do is absolutely immaterial to what he will do. Any party hack who presided over the show trial he conducted, knowing all the while that what he is doing was and is improper and without “foundation” in the law and due process, isn’t about to back down now. He has his shot at “history”.
“all Trump critics will refer to him as a felon.”
But like every dirty thing else Democrats have tried over the past four years, it will only make Trump more popular…. this time, among Democrat voters themselves, who LOVE electing them some convicted felons.
The “punishment” isn’t the point; it’s the felony charge they want on Trump’s record because the Leftwaffe knows their stupid followers will glomb on to that.
This pasquinade is petty, vindictive, and spiteful and has Biden’s fingerprints all over it.
Stop using the Left’s language.
This was not “hush money”. This was a legitimate confidentiality agreement.
Have Trump lawyer’s tried filing for a writ of mandamus against Merchan yet in this case?
Not available. Mandamus requires a government official to perform an act that he is legally required to perform.
Why should anyone but the most sick of the TDS crowd even care about this anymore?
They tried to stop Trump’s election with lawfare, like a banana republic would. They failed.
This is just an exercise in masturbation over what might have been.
“However, it means Trump will be a felon.”
So what? There is nothing preventing a Felon from being President. If I were Trump I would be like “The first Felon to be president? WooHoo another first for me!”
All this is just a leftist talking point and has no basis in the actual requirements to become president, which is something Trump’s team should start pointing out when these moronic leftist bring it up.
The alleged incident occurred when Trump was President. (Hence his claim of Presidential immunity.)
If the conviction stands, Trump would most certainly be impeached and possibly be removed from office.
That’s why the felony conviction matters.
Absent a few Rs voting to pass Articles of Impeachment, there’s no way he is impeached at least until 2027 (assuming midterms favor the Dems).
If Trump really wants to delay sentencing then he just doesn’t show up, in person or virtually, and then dare Merchan to issue an arrest warrant.
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