Judge Juan Merchan in New York (USA) has just announced his decision to sentence President-elect Donald Trump on January 10 in the criminal case in which he was convicted of paying hush money to a former human film actor. big. According to the sheet The New York Timesthe above decision means that Mr. Trump will be sentenced just 10 days before taking office, something that has never happened in American history.
Before inauguration day, President-elect Trump must hear the verdict
Judge’s signal
A jury in New York in May 2023 declared Mr. Trump guilty of all 34 charges of falsifying records to conceal the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the US presidential election in 2023. 2016. Prosecutors accused Mr. Trump of participating in an illegal conspiracy to sabotage the election, using money to force Ms. Daniels not to reveal her previous sexual relationship with him. Mr. Trump denied all accusations.
Mr. Trump answers the media at Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on December 31, 2024
When announcing the sentencing on January 10, Judge Merchan said he was leaning towards an unconditional pardon for Mr. Trump, a rare alternative to a prison sentence or suspended sentence. According to Mr Merchan, this appears to be “the most feasible solution to ensure finality and allow the defendant to pursue his appeal options”. However, this could make Mr. Trump the first US president to have his criminal conviction cleared right before taking office, despite his efforts to have the court annul the indictment and verdict.
Mr. Merchan said that dismissing the indictment and setting aside the jury’s verdict would not address concerns raised by the Supreme Court in several cases related to presidential immunity, nor would does not serve the rule of law.
Mr. Trump was annoyed
In an interview on Fox News on January 3, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Merchan for refusing the request to annul the sentence, and said that the Democrats “just want to see if they can get any meat, because of all the cases.” all failed”. The president-elect said every major legal scholar has strongly stated that there was no case but just a witch hunt. He asserted that he did nothing wrong, while Mr. Merchan is “a completely contradictory judge and is working for the Democratic party.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump’s spokesman Steven Cheung, who will become White House Communications Director in more than 2 weeks, said that Mr. Merchan’s decision “is a direct violation of the decision on immunity.” U.S. Supreme Court exceptions and other long-standing legal principles.” Mr. Cheung said that the “illegal case” must be immediately annulled. “There should be no conviction, and President-elect Trump will continue to fight until all of these hoaxes are eradicated,” he said.
About to return to the White House, Mr. Trump also complained about America’s flag flying at half-staff to coincide with his inauguration on January 20. Previously, US President Joe Biden announced that January 9 would be a national day of mourning for late President Jimmy Carter and the entire country would fly flags at half-mast for 30 days.
House Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected after the voting session on January 3 (local time), with important support from President-elect Donald Trump and ending the risk of the 2025 US House of Representatives session opening in chaotic. According to AFP, Mr. Johnson (Republican party) won 218 votes, the minimum number needed, while all 215 Democratic lawmakers supported their party’s candidate, Mr. Hakeem Jeffries. Some Republican lawmakers do not want to vote for Mr. Johnson because they believe he was too soft on Democrats when negotiating the spending bill last month. At the last minute, there were still a few Republican lawmakers who did not want to vote for Mr. Johnson, so Mr. Trump called two of them, according to Punchbowl News. Speaking after his re-election, Mr. Johnson announced that he would extend the tax cuts made by Mr. Trump in 2017 and will expire this year. In addition, he pledged to deal with inflation, reduce the size of government and “return power to the people”.
