Topline
President-elect Donald Trump failed to stop his sentencing in his Manhattan criminal case from taking place Friday as scheduled, as a judge denied a notice of appeal filed by his lawyers Monday arguing the sentencing be paused until an appeals court rules on whether the guilty verdict against him should be thrown out.
Former President Donald Trump departs the courtroom after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his … [+]
Getty ImagesKey Facts
On Monday, Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s request to stop the Friday sentencing, ruling Trump’s bid was “for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, as Merchan scheduled the sentencing for Friday in an order that also threw out Trump’s request to have the verdict dropped.
Merchan also separately previously rejected a different Trump request to have the verdict thrown out based on the Supreme Court’s ruling giving him some immunity, and Trump’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal with the court Monday, saying they will be asking an appeals court to reconsider both of Merchan’s rulings and throw out the guilty verdict.
The sentencing should be automatically paused while Trump appeals Merchan’s two rulings, Trump’s lawyers argued, or else Merchan should halt proceedings in the case—including the sentencing—until the appeals court rules.
It’s still unclear how long the appeals court could take to rule in the case, or if the issue will be resolved in time for Trump’s sentencing on Friday, but Trump asked for Merchan to decide whether the sentencing will move forward by 2 p.m. EST Monday.
Trump is trying to have the guilty verdict against him thrown out because of his impending presidency, claiming that moving forward with the case would “threaten the functioning of the federal government” and violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution that prioritizes federal law over state law.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which brought the case against Trump, opposed Trump’s request in a filing Monday afternoon and argued the sentencing should take place Friday as scheduled, noting “the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings” and arguing the court has already “bent over backwards” to give Trump “ample time” to appeal various issues in the case.
What To Watch For
It’s unclear how long it will take the appeals court to decide the case. Merchan acknowledged in his order scheduling Trump’s sentencing that should the appeals process postpone the sentencing past Inauguration Day, it’s possible the sentencing could be delayed until after Trump leaves office in 2029.
What Sentence Could Trump Face?
Merchan said in his order scheduling Trump’s sentencing that he thinks giving Trump an “unconditional discharge” would be the most “viable solution,” which means Trump would still be sentenced and convicted of the 34 felony counts, but will not face any punishments. Even if Trump is given penalties, Merchan has also all but ruled out sentencing Trump to prison, writing Friday he’s inclined not to impose a sentence of incarceration and acknowledging putting Trump in prison wouldn’t be “practicable” given his impending presidency. If he isn’t given an unconditional discharge, Trump could also have to pay a fine of up to $170,000, as each of the 34 counts he’s been found guilty on are subject to a fine of up to $5,000. It’s possible Trump could also face other penalties, like probation, though those are unlikely given the logistical issues with his presidency.
Key Background
A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts in May following a weekslong trial, as Trump was charged based on a hush money payment his ex-attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Trump then reimbursed Cohen through a series of payments paid throughout 2017, which prosecutors successfully argued were falsely labeled as being for legal services. Merchan’s ruling last week scheduling Trump’s sentencing comes after the president-elect had been successfully able to push back the sentencing—initially scheduled for July—for months, with the court first postponing it until September and then until after the election, as Merchan said he wanted to avoid any perception of bias. The sentencing still taking place pre-Inauguration Day came as a surprise, given that prosecutors had suggested it should be postponed until after Trump left office or dropped altogether. Merchan wrote Trump should have been expecting it to still move forward even if he won the election, however, as Trump “not only consented to, but in fact requested the very adjournment that led us down the path we are on.” Trump should have expected that the court postponing the sentencing until after the election “carried with it the implied consent that he would face sentence during the window between the election and the taking of the oath of office,” Merchan argued.
Tangent
Trump’s request to stop the sentencing while he appeals Merchan’s order comes as the president-elect has largely been able to run out the clock on his criminal cases. The hush money case is the only one of the four criminal cases against Trump that went to trial, as Trump was successfully able to delay the two federal cases against him until after the presidential election—at which point they were dropped, given the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Trump’s only other surviving criminal case is in Georgia, where he faces state charges based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, though the fate of that case is now in doubt after an appeals court ruled to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from overseeing the prosecution. The case could still be assigned to a different prosecutor—or the Georgia Supreme Court could overturn the appeals court and keep Willis in place—but it’s unclear how long that process could take to play out, and it’s also possible the case could get dropped entirely.
Further Reading
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