Judge rules hush-money sentencing to go ahead despite U.S. presidential election victory
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump must be sentenced on Friday in the criminal case in which he was convicted on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, a judge ruled on Friday, adding that he is not inclined to impose a jail sentence.
Justice Juan Merchan’s ruling means Mr. Trump will be required to appear at a court hearing just 10 days before his Jan. 20 inauguration – an unprecedented scenario in U.S. history. Before Mr. Trump, no U.S. president – former or sitting – had been charged with or convicted of a crime.
The judge said Mr. Trump may appear at his sentencing either in-person or virtually and wrote that a sentence of “unconditional discharge” – meaning no custody, monetary fine, or probation – would be “the most viable solution.”
In a statement, Mr. Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said there should be no sentencing in the case.
“This lawless case should have never been brought, and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed,” Mr. Cheung said.
Justice Merchan announced his plan for the sentencing in denying Mr. Trump’s motion to dismiss the case due to his presidential election victory. The judge said the Republican president-elect may appear for the sentencing, which will take place just 10 days before his inauguration, either in person or virtually.
In Mr. Trump’s second motion to dismiss the case filed since his May conviction, his defence lawyers argued that having the case hang over him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern.
Justice Merchan rejected that argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways.”
“Defendant’s status as President-elect does not require the drastic and ‘rare’ application of [the court’s] authority to grant the [dismissal] motion,” Merchan wrote in the decision.
Justice Merchan also rejected Mr. Trump’s argument in a Dec. 3 court filing that dismissal was warranted because his “civic and financial contributions to this city and the Nation are too numerous to count.”
While acknowledging Mr. Trump’s service as president, the judge said Mr. Trump’s public statements excoriating the justice system were also a factor for him in determining how Mr. Trump’s character would factor into the decision.
Justice Merchan criticized what he called Mr. Trump’s “unrelenting and unsubstantiated attacks” against the integrity of the criminal proceeding and noted that he had found him guilty of 10 counts of contempt during the trial for repeatedly violating an order restricting out-of-court statements about witnesses and others.
“Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole,” Justice Merchan wrote.
“Defendant’s character and history vis-a-vis the Rule of Law and the Third Branch of government must be analyzed,” the judge said. “In that vein, it does not weigh in his favour.”
34 counts
The case stemmed from a US$130,000 payment that Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Mr. Trump, who denies it.
A Manhattan jury in May found Mr. Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. It was the first time a U.S. president had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.
Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the Democratic prosecutor who brought the charges, to harm his 2024 campaign.
Mr. Trump on Dec. 16 lost a separate bid to toss the conviction in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 1 decision that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted over their official actions, and that evidence of their official actions cannot be presented in criminal cases over personal conduct.
In denying Mr. Trump’s motion to dismiss, Justice Merchan said the prosecution over “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, but incarceration is not required. Before his election victory, legal experts said it was unlikely Mr. Trump would be locked up owing to his lack of a criminal history and advanced age.
‘Extreme remedy’
Mr. Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26, but Justice Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after Mr. Trump defeated Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.
Mr. Bragg’s office said there were measures short of the “extreme remedy” of overturning the jury’s verdict that could assuage Mr. Trump’s concerns about being distracted by a criminal case while serving as president.
They suggested several options for Justice Merchan, including delaying the sentencing until Mr. Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029, or guaranteeing a sentence that would not involve prison time.
The prosecutors also said the judge could simply terminate the case with a notation that Mr. Trump was never sentenced and that his conviction was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal. They said a similar approach was used in cases where a defendant dies after being convicted but before being sentenced.
Mr. Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Mr. Trump’s election victory.
Mr. Trump’s state criminal case in Georgia over charges stemming from his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state is in limbo.
This article was first reported by Reuters
