Alvin Bragg, President Trump (Getty Images); Juan Merchan (Law)
President Trump on Monday morning launched a legal challenge to halt Judge Juan Merchan’s sentencing in the lawfare hush money case.
If Trump is sentenced, he will officially be a ‘convicted felon’ which is why Merchan is trying to move forward with the sentencing.
Trump will be sentenced in Alvin Bragg’s lawfare hush money case on January 10 before his inauguration.
“This court finds that neither the vacatur of the jury’s verdicts nor dismissal of the indictment are required by the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act or the Supremacy Clause,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote last Friday.
Merchan said Trump will not serve time behind bars and allowed him to appear virtually at his sentencing this week.
In April, Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts after he was accused of paying porn star Stormy Daniels, AKA, Stephanie Clifford, ‘hush payments’ through his then-attorney Michael Cohen in a scheme to silence her and stop the story about their alleged affair from being published in the National Enquirer.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged Trump committed fraud because the payment was labeled “legal fees.”
Merchan previously rejected Trump’s effort to overturn the felony conviction based on the presidential immunity argument after the Supreme Court ruled that US presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Merchan lacked authority to proceed with sentencing because Trump is still appealing the judge’s ruling.
ABC News reported:
President-elect Donald Trump on Monday asked the judge overseeing his criminal hush money case in New York to halt his sentencing in the case, currently set for Friday.
In a court filing Monday, Trump’s attorneys argued that Merchan “will lack authority to proceed with sentencing” because Trump is still appealing Merchan’s earlier ruling that the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision does not apply to the New York hush money case.
“Forcing a President to continue to defend a criminal case — potentially through trial or, even more dramatically here, through sentencing and judgment — while the appellate courts are still grappling with his claim of immunity would, in fact, force that President ‘to answer for his conduct in court’ before his claim of immunity is finally adjudicated,” defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
Trump’s attorneys said it did not matter.
“It is of no moment that the Court has suggested an intention to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge. While it is indisputable that the fabricated charges in this meritless case should have never been brought, and at this point could not possibly justify a sentence more onerous than that, no sentence at all is appropriate based on numerous legal errors — including legal errors directly relating to Presidential immunity that President Trump will address in the forthcoming appeals,” the defense said in Monday’s filing.
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