Donald Trump He is the first elected president of the United States who is a convicted criminal but, at least For now, he will still not be sentenced. He judge Juan Merchanwho has presided over the trial of the Stormy Daniels case that ended with Trump being found guilty of 34 charges by a popular jury, announced this Friday that postpones the sentencewhich in principle was going to dictate next Tuesday. Merchan He has not given a new date.
In this Friday’s legal document the magistrate has authorized the defense of trump to present a motion to try to have the case dismissed. Although the lawyers had requested to have until December 20 to do so, Merchan has given them as deadline until December 2. The prosecution headed by Alvin Bragg will from then on have a week to respond to the motion.
Open debate on Immunity
Merchan has also announced this Friday that until it reviews the documentation presented by the two parties regarding the dismissal of the case, it will not make a decision on whether the controversial ruling issued by the Supreme Court in July extending presidential immunity affects the New York case in some way. In this criminal case, the only one of the four that Trump faced that went to trial, he was convicted by the falsification of accounting documents to hide the payments you made for silence Stormy Daniels before the 2016 electionsthe porn star who claims that the two had a sexual relationship.
Trump’s lawyers allege that some of the evidence used in the trial was covered by that supposed immunity. Bragg rejects that argument and claims that Trump was just a candidate when he orchestrated the payments.
Bragg’s office had already asked Merchan a few days ago to consider suspending the sentence until Trump’s presidency ends and he leaves office. The magistrate has not given indications in his writing this Friday about his agreement or disagreement with that request.
