A New York judge rejected US president-elect Donald Trump’s request to throw out the guilty verdict in the so-called hush money case as a result of his victory in the November election.
The decision on Friday by US Justice Juan Merchan in Manhattan is a blow to Trump’s effort to put the criminal case behind him before his inauguration on Jan. 20.
The president-elect was ordered to appear for sentencing on Friday next week.
Photo: AP
However, Merchan said that an unconditional discharge without imposing any term of incarceration was the best option.
“This court must sentence defendant within a reasonable time following verdict,” Merchan said. The “defendant must be permitted to avail himself of every available appeal, a path he has made clear he intends to pursue but which only becomes fully available upon sentencing.”
Trump, 78, had faced as many as four years in prison in the hush money case after a jury in May last year found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for payments to an adult film star before the 2016 election.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had argued that Trump’s sentencing should wait until after he finishes his term in office in four years.
“This court has painstakingly considered the respective arguments of the parties and finds that setting aside the jury verdict is not the best or only way to reconcile the competing interests,” Merchan said.
Trump campaigned to return to the White House while battling four criminal prosecutions, though the hush money case was the only one that made it to trial before the election. Two of the cases have already been dismissed as a direct result of his election win. Another state case in Georgia, over Trump’s attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 US presidential election, is in limbo after an appeals court removed the prosecutor.
Trump has largely benefitted from long-standing doctrines barring prosecution of sitting presidents. The two federal cases were voluntarily dropped by US Special Counsel Jack Smith after Trump won, citing a US Department of Justice policy on the issue.
Trump denied wrongdoing in all the criminal cases, claiming that they were part of a coordinated “witch hunt” intended to undermine his bid to return to the White House.
Merchan rejected each of Trump’s arguments for dismissal, including that allowing a criminal conviction to hang over a sitting president would undermine his authority.
The judge said that Trump won the election even after he was convicted in the case.
“Whatever stigma that might have existed, will most certainly not interfere with defendant’s ability to carry out his duties — both as president-elect and as the sitting president,” Merchan said.
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