Donald Trump will become the first convicted felon to occupy the White House on January 20. Furthermore, he will do so already knowing the sentence for the 34 crimes for which a jury found him guilty in the Stormy Daniels case. Surprisingly, after indefinitely postponing the sentence, Judge Juan Merchan announced this Friday that he will impose the sentence on the president-elect next Friday, January 10. Of course, the judge has anticipated that he will not send Trump to jail, but rather leans toward an unconditional exemption from the sentence.
The judge points out that he does not find “any legal impediment to sentencing” Trump and that it was “up to him” to do so before his inauguration on January 20. “Only with the final resolution of this matter will the interests of justice be served,” he argues. In any case, it will be a non-final sentence. Trump’s lawyers can appeal it. They may even try to avoid a ruling by going to the appeals court.
“While this court, as a matter of law, should not make any sentencing decision before giving the parties and the accused an opportunity to be heard, it seems appropriate at this time to make known the court’s inclination not to impose any imprisonment, a sentence authorized by the conviction, but which the People [la acusación] “He admits that he no longer sees it as a feasible recommendation,” the judge maintains in his 18-page resolution.
“As such, on the balance of the aforementioned considerations, along with the underlying concerns of the doctrine of presidential immunity, a sentence of unconditional waiver appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow the defendant to pursue his options of appeal,” he adds.
The Manhattan district judge last month rejected the president-elect’s request to have his conviction for the Stormy Daniels case by virtue of the recent ruling of the Supreme Court that grants broad immunity to presidents in the exercise of their office. Previously, in November, he had been in favor of freezing the case while Trump was president and had indefinitely postponed the sentence, but finally what he is doing is anticipating his taking office.
Trump was found guilty by a popular jury of 34 crimes of forging checks, invoices and accounting records. He intended to hide the payments of $130,000 to porn film actress Stormy Daniels—so that she would remain silent and not harm her electoral chances in the 2016 presidential elections. Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, although the sentences for each of the crimes can be served simultaneously. In cases like Trump’s – not to mention that he is now the president-elect – it was already unlikely that the convicted person would have to go to prison. Typically, a person convicted of these crimes is released on conditional release or receives a fine, but in this case there will in principle be no conditions for his or her release, as the judge has suggested.
Merchan makes another concession. “To allay the defendant’s concerns regarding the mental and physical demands during this transition period (…) this court will allow the defendant to exercise his right to appear virtually in these proceedings, if he so desires,” he writes. Trump will not have to go through the humiliation of going to hear his condemnation.
The former president’s defense strategy has been based on delaying and delaying cases until after the elections. With his maneuvers, Trump has avoided sitting in the dock in his other three criminal trials, which he has effectively escaped after being elected president.
In the New York case, the only one for which he has gone to trial, he first sought to overturn the conviction under the doctrine of the Supreme Court ruling that granted broad criminal immunity to presidents for their official acts. Merchan rejected that thesis. Trump’s lawyers also alleged the Justice Department’s practice of not pursuing sitting presidents. By analogy, his lawyers believed it should also apply to an elected president.
