CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig stated that President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to cancel his upcoming sentencing in connection with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case will spark a legal back-and-forth between the prosecution and defense. Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the criminal case, ruled on Friday that Trump must appear for his sentencing on January 10, either in person or virtually, just ten days before his inauguration.
According to Honig, the judge has indicated that Trump is highly likely to receive an unconditional discharge, meaning he would face no jail time or probation. “The judge has made as clear as possible in the ruling that he made Friday night that he intends to sentence Donald Trump to what we call an unconditional discharge, meaning no prison time, no probation, no fine, no community service, no nothing. And b), that in order to accommodate President Trump’s status as president-elect, he’s willing to hold the proceeding by Zoom, which is very unusual,” Honig said.
“So that’s all that’s at stake with this sentencing coming up on Friday, but as you know, that would make this conviction formal. A document, a piece of paper called a Judgement of Conviction, would issue upon sentencing, so that would formalize Donald Trump’s status as a convicted felon,” he added — something Trump is not about to sit still for.
Trump informed the court on Monday that he intends to cancel his upcoming sentencing and appeal Judge Merchan’s decision to dismiss the case, citing presidential immunity and his victory in the 2024 election. His legal team argues that the judge should postpone all sentencing hearings and related deadlines until the president-elect’s immunity appeals are “fully and finally resolved.”
“If Judge Merchan says to Donald Trump’s new request today, ‘sorry, denied, we are moving forward with this sentencing on Friday,’ then look for Donald Trump’s team to take it to the next level,” Honig continued. “I think they’re going to go to the appeals court and say: ‘Alright appeals court, you have to now put on pause everything happening with Judge Merchan, because again, I’m entitled to have everything stayed, everything put on hold while I appeal the immunity decision.’
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“So, we’re gonna see a back-and-forth happening between Donald Trump and [Bragg] and Judge Merchan and maybe the New York appeals courts starting hours from now and I think continuing right up to the sentencing on Friday,” he said. Merchan suggested that an unconditional discharge would be the most appropriate sentence, considering that Trump is set to take office in just two weeks. In December, he ruled that the case would not be dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity, despite the Supreme Court’s statement in July that a president is entitled to such immunity for official acts performed during their time in office.
In May, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 hush money payment made to former porn actress Stormy Daniels, who alleged that the two had an affair in 2006. Trump has consistently denied the affair allegations. The president-elect and his legal allies have also asserted that the way the case played out and the manner in which the charges were brought in the first place were improper and entirely political.
Disclaimer: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.