- Trump, who is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, may get a reprieve.
- Presidents enjoy blanket immunity from prosecution.
- The president-elect has repeatedly mocked the case as a witch hunt.
The judge in the criminal case facing Donald Trump in New York has postponed until November 19 a decision on the possibility of overturning the conviction of the US President-elect, the court said on Tuesday.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found that he fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star before the 2016 election.
Trump, who is scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, may get a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case after the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
This landmark ruling saw the court decide, by a conservative 6-3 majority, that presidents enjoy blanket immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Before the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to dismiss the case in light of the Supreme Court’s decision, a move strongly rejected by prosecutors.
If Merchan drops the case on that basis, the 78-year-old Trump will not be sentenced.
If he does not, Trump’s legal team will almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any ruling, insisting that doing so would interfere with Trump’s role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on January 20.
“The joint request to postpone the current deadlines… until 19 November is granted,” the court wrote in an email to the parties in the case, seen by AFP.
“hard hit”
Editorial in Kansas City Star The newspaper called on the judge in the case to “do what was previously unthinkable, which is to force the president-elect to take the oath in a prison cell.”
“The surreal spectacle, while certainly shocking to the rest of the free world, sends an unmistakable message – the rule of law still applies in America.”
But Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, said the New York case and others across the country were “clearly brought for political purposes (and) have now been widely broadcast and dismissed in the court of public opinion.”
“Further jockeying on these issues in the coming weeks will serve no legitimate purpose and will only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,” he wrote.
Trump has repeatedly mocked the case as a witch hunt, saying it “should be legitimately ended.”
Besides the New York case, brought by state prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and another related to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he will be able to step in to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has begun to end those cases.
A federal judge appointed by Trump had already dismissed the documents case, but Smith sought to appeal that decision.
“Trump’s win means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct,” former Attorney General Randall Eliason said in an article on Substack.
“This is a severe blow to the rule of law.”
The New York conviction, which came just months before an election that Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic developments in the race for the White House.
In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet struck his ear.
Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside for the Democratic nomination after a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.
This paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color from a major American party to run for president.