Where Does Trump’s Hush-Money Sentencing Go From Here?
ByNia Prater,
Intelligencer staff writer, who covers New York politics
Photo: Mark Peterson/Reuters
As Donald Trump’s victory ushers in a new political era for the country, it also marks a likely end to the president-elect’s legal troubles at the federal level. Special counsel Jack Smith, who was leading the election-subversion and classified-documents cases, indicated last week that he was in the process of winding down the probes in light of Trump’s return to the White House. (It’s a long-established Justice Department policy to abstain from prosecuting a sitting president.)
But Trump’s chances of eluding legal repercussions on the state level appeared to grow this week, too. Judge Juan Merchan had been expected to issue a ruling on whether the Supreme Court’s decision regarding presidential immunity has any impact on Trump’s upcoming sentencing in his hush-money case in Manhattan. But on Tuesday, the judge officially postponed his decision to November 19 after both sides requested additional time to determine how to proceed in the light of Trump’s win last Tuesday.
But Trump’s legal team has indicated that they intend to push for the case’s dismissal entirely. Trump’s attorney Emil Bove wrote in a letter that delaying Merchan’s decision as well as dismissing the case are “necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence about an alleged affair. Though Trump was initially slated to be sentenced in July, that hearing was delayed following the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, which stated that past and current presidents could not be prosecuted for official acts taken while holding the office. The hearing was ultimately pushed back to November 26, ensuring that no sentence would be handed down prior to Election Day. So far, Trump’s sentencing hearing remains on the calendar, though that could potentially change.
If Merchan does ultimately decide to levy a sentence against Trump, he’ll find himself in uncharted legal waters, and Trump’s legal team would file an immediate appeal against any such sentence. A New York Times analysis found plenty of precedence of defendants being handed jail time for the same charges Trump was convicted on. However, the likelihood of an incoming president facing time behind bars appears fairly remote, and any other more lenient punishment will likely face its own challenge from Trump’s attorneys.
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