Judge upholds Trump's felony conviction, but does not plan to order jail time [View all]
Last edited Fri Jan 3, 2025, 06:34 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: Washington Post
January 3, 2025 at 5:12 p.m. EST Updated 1 minute ago
NEW YORK -- President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of his swearing-in on Jan. 20, but is not expected to face jail time, a judge ruled Friday. The decision to uphold Trump's conviction and schedule the sentencing Jan. 10 almost certainly means Trump will be the first felon to serve as a U.S. president.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote in his ruling that he does not intend to sentence Trump to jail. He said he plans to order an "unconditional discharge," a designation in New York criminal courts for a non-jail and non-probation sentence that carries no other obligations.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to an adult-film star ahead of the 2016 election. He faced up to four years in prison, but many experts said incarceration was unlikely because of his age and his lack of prior convictions. Since Trump's victory at the polls in November, his lawyers have argued that anything short of dismissing the case would violate laws that protect the transition process and grant immunity from prosecution to sitting presidents.
In his decision, Merchan rejected those arguments. He called the Trump team's claims a "novel theory" of presidential immunity that would amount to an abuse of his legal discretion. "The Defendant has presented no valid argument to convince this Court otherwise," he said. "Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity. This Court is therefore forbidden from recognizing either form of immunity."
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/01/03/trump-new-york-hush-money-conviction-sentence/
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January 3, 2025 at 4:14 p.m. EST Updated 1 minute ago
NEW YORK -- President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of his swearing-in on Jan. 20, a judge ruled Friday. The decision to schedule the sentencing Jan. 10 almost certainly means Trump will be the first felon to serve as a U.S. president. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote in his ruling that he does not intend to sentence Trump to jail.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to an adult-film star ahead of the 2016 election. He faced up to four years in prison, but many experts said incarceration was unlikely because of his age and his lack of prior convictions.
Since Trump's victory at the polls in November, his lawyers have argued that anything short of dismissing the case would violate laws that protect the transition process and grant immunity from prosecution to sitting presidents.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office had floated the idea of postponing Trump's sentencing until after his term ends in 2029. Prosecutors also suggested the judge consider abating the case against Trump while preserving the record of his conviction, a legal mechanism typically used when a defendant dies while proceedings are pending.
Original article -
NEW YORK -- President-elect Donald Trump will be sentenced on 34 counts of falsifying business records ahead of his swearing-in on Jan. 20, a judge ruled Friday. The decision to schedule the sentencing Jan. 10 almost certainly means Trump will be the first felon to serve as a U.S. president.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to an adult-film star ahead of the 2016 election. He faces up to four years in prison, but many experts said incarceration is unlikely because of his age and his lack of prior convictions. Since Trump's victory at the polls in November, his lawyers have argued that anything short of dismissing the case would violate laws that protect the transition process and grant immunity from prosecution to sitting presidents.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office had floated the idea of postponing Trump's sentencing until after his term ends in 2029. Prosecutors also suggested the judge consider abating the case against Trump while preserving the record of his conviction, a legal mechanism typically used when a defendant dies while proceedings are pending.
The district attorney's office argued throwing out the case entirely "would go well beyond what is necessary to protect the presidency and would subvert the compelling public interest in preserving the jury's unanimous verdict and upholding the rule of law."
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