A busy start to the year for Donald Trump. The president-elect of the United States will return to the White House this January, but 10 days before he takes office he will have to return to court to hear the sentence for the ‘Stormy Daniels case’, the alleged bribery of the Republican leader to the former actress. adult cinema.
He will sit back in the dock seven months after the 12-person jury found him guilty of all the charges he faced, a total of 34, before being confirmed as a candidate.
This Friday, Judge Juan Merchan has ruled that the president-elect of the United States must go to court on January 10 to hear the sentence on the case of alleged bribery of former adult film actress Stephanie Clifford.
This is clear from a document collected by the American press in which Judge Merchan emphasizes that Trump will be convicted, although he will not face legal sanctions. The president-elect can still appeal any possible conviction, while the Prosecutor’s Office has refused to comment on the facts.
Merchan’s ruling puts an end to two months of speculation and maneuvering between Trump’s lawyers and the US Justice Department once the magnate won the presidential elections last November. Trump will take office on January 20, ten days before the sentencing.
The judge, who postponed ‘sine die’ the hearing in which it will be known whether he is finally sentenced to prison, held him responsible for falsifying documents to hide a payment of $130,000 to ‘Stormy Daniels’, whom he paid so that she would not talk about an alleged extramarital relationship.
The Supreme Court ruled that former presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts, noting that evidence related to Trump’s work as president could not be used in the trial. The magnate’s defense argued that the ruling by the country’s highest court meant that the conviction should be annulled and the accusation dismissed, but Merchan pointed out that immunity does not affect this case.
Trump’s conviction carries the possibility of up to four years in prison, which could however be replaced by a wide range of alternatives to imprisonment ranging from probation to payment of fines.
From the bench to the White House
10 days after he takes office, the Republican leader will return to the White House. 4 years after he left, after inciting people to storm the Capitol because they considered Joe Biden’s electoral victory a fraud.
Donald Trump more than met the minimum number of votes necessary to be able to sit in the Oval Office again. His comfortable victory over Kamala Harris, with two million more supports, will allow him to complete his second stage as North American president.
Although he returns to the White House worse than when he left. Despite the tensions over the attempted assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the president-elect will return to lead a new administration, despite having been accused of a total of 34 crimes.
Trump denounces an “illegitimate political attack”
The president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, attacked Judge Juan Merchan this Friday, accusing him of carrying out an “illegitimate political attack” in relation to his appearance on January 10.
“This illegitimate political attack is nothing more than a rigged farce. “Acting” Judge Merchan, who He is a radical partisan, he just issued another order that is knowingly illegal“, goes against our Constitution and, if it is allowed to stand, it would be the end of the Presidency as we know it,” he stated on his account on the Truth Social social network, which he himself promulgated.
The Republican magnate has harshly criticized the judge, accusing him of “have so little respect for the Constitution“who has maintained a silence order that he considers illegal.
“I am the only political opponent in the history of the United States who is not allowed to defend himself – A despicable violation of the First Amendment!“, he denounced.
Thus, Trump has concluded that “this has to end”: “It is time to end Lawfare once and for all, so we can unite as one nation.”
“Direct violation of the immunity ruling”
Trump’s campaign spokesman and nominee as White House Communications Director, Steven Cheung, has called Judge Juan Merchan’s order a “direct violation of the immunity ruling.”
“Today’s order by the deeply conflicted Judge Merchan in the Manhattan prosecutor’s witch hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Supreme Court immunity ruling and other long-standing jurisprudence,” he said in a statement.
In this sense, the president-elect’s team has denounced that this case “should never have been presented.” “President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and execute the vital duties of the presidency, unhindered by the remnants of this or any remnants of the witch hunt,” he stressed.
