A Manhattan judge ordered sentencing to proceed as scheduled
President-elect Donald Trump was thwarted Monday in his bid to indefinitely postpone this week’s sentencing in his hush money case, while his lawyers continue in their attempt to appeals the ruling that upheld the verdict.
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If the ruling stands he will be the first president to take office after being convicted of crimes.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan ordered Friday’s sentencing to proceed as scheduled, rejecting arguments from Trump’s lawyers who said it should be halted while they ask a state appeals court to reverse his decision to let the conviction stand.
Trump can still ask the appeals court to intervene and order a stay. Otherwise, he’ll be sentenced a little more than a week before he is inaugurated for a second term.
Trump’s lawyers have told Merchan that if his sentencing happens, he will appear by video rather than in person. The judge had given him that option in light of the demands of the presidential transition process.
Last Friday Merchan denied Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict on the basis of his impending return to the White House, but said he is not likely to sentence him to jail-time to for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump wrote on Truth Social after Merchan ruled that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”
Trump’s lawyers, who are also challenging Merchan’s prior refusal to dismiss the case on presidential immunity grounds, filed appeal paperwork Monday afternoon in the appellate division. Arguments have not been scheduled.
They did not ask the court to halt Trump’s sentencing. Separately, they argued to Merchan that the appeal should trigger an automatic stay of proceedings but if it doesn’t that he should do it himself — an idea he rejected.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged Merchan to proceed as scheduled “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.”
Prosecutors blamed Trump for pushing his sentencing to the brink of his second term by repeatedly pushing to postpone his sentencing, originally scheduled for July.
“He should not now be heard to complain of harm from delays he caused,” they wrote in a court filing Monday afternoon.
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
Any delay in sentencing could run out the clock on closing the case before Trump’s second term begins Jan. 20.
If sentencing doesn’t happen before Trump is sworn in, waiting until he leaves office in 2029 “may become the only viable option,” Merchan said in his ruling.
If sentencing proceeds on Friday as scheduled, Trump’s lawyers argued, he will be appealing the verdict while in office and will be “forced to deal with criminal proceedings for years to come.” They raised an improbable scenario in which, if Trump wins his appeal, he could be then subjected to another criminal trial while in office.
In upholding the verdict and rejecting Trump’s bids for dismissal, Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said sentencing Trump to an unconditional discharge — no jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.”
Whenever he is sentenced, Trump will have an opportunity to speak, as will his lawyers and prosecutors. He can only appeal the verdict after he is sentenced.
The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.
The case centred on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation up to four years in prison.
Cohen, a key prosecution witness who had previously called for Trump to be put in prison, said that “based upon all of the intervening circumstances” Merchan’s decision to sentence Trump without punishment “is both judicious and appropriate.”
Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at his lawyers’ request. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defence and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.
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