The verdict in Trump’s porn actress bribery case will be handed down before Trump’s inauguration.
On Saturday night, US President-elect Donald Trump criticized the judge who decided to issue a verdict in his case of payments to a porn star before the inauguration scheduled for January 20. Trump called the judge’s decision an “illegitimate political attack”, the AP agency reported.
“This illegitimate political attack is nothing more than a rigged charade,” Trump wrote on his social network Truth Social after Judge Juan Merchan confirmed on Friday that a New York jury will announce its verdict against Trump on January 10.
As AP reported on Saturday night, Judge Merchan also indicated that the punishment would not be prison, TASR reports. The court will deliver its verdict on Trump just ten days before his return to the White House. The AP agency called this decision of Judge Merchan extraordinary. According to him, Trump will have to appear in court in person or participate in it via video call.
Presidential immunity does not apply
At the end of May, a New York court jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of bribing porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence. Falsification of business records was also related to the case. Trump denies all allegations in the case.
In another case, the US Supreme Court ruled in July that US presidents and former presidents have “absolute immunity” in connection with the performance of their duties and “at least presumptive immunity for acts within the broader scope of official duties”.
However, Judge Merchan said in a previous ruling that the US Supreme Court’s ruling on immunity in connection with the performance of official acts did not apply to this case, as the trial involved “wholly unofficial conduct that is not entitled to any immunity,” she said at the time. The New York prosecutor’s office also emphasized that both the trial and the jury’s verdict came before the Supreme Court’s verdict.
