The judge in the Stormy Daninels case announced this Friday that he is indefinitely postponing the sentencing of Donald Trump, who was found guilty last May of the 34 serious crimes of which he was accused. Judge Juan Merchan’s decision definitively freezes the resolution of the case and represents a new judicial victory for the now president-elect. The only one of the first criminal cases against Trump that managed to reach trial before the elections has also ended in a dead end.
Trump will assume the presidency of the United States on January 20 with a firm guilty sentence, but without having a ruling on the penalty he must pay. For the Republican, the label of “convict” has never been a problem and it will be less so when he enjoys the protection granted by the presidency, which prevents judging a president in office.
Merchan has accepted the request of Trump’s defense to present a request to dismiss the case, a fact that has meant that the judge postpones without a new date the resolution of the sentence that the now president-elect should serve for his conviction. Initially, next Tuesday the 26th Merchan was to hand down the sentence.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the case should be dismissed because its existence while he is president would cause “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.
The decision comes after this Tuesday the prosecutor’s office also appeared open to leaving the case suspended until the tycoon finishes his term, but refused to dismiss the conviction. The judge has also agreed to postpone the decision on whether presidential immunity applies to Trump in this case until the last appeals that both parties can present until December 2 have been reviewed, although the magnate’s defense requested.
The Republican faced up to almost four years in prison for the crimes he was found guilty of, including falsifying the legal records of payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence so that she would not explain that they had had sexual relations. . Since the falsified payment was made to avoid a scandal that could damage the magnate’s campaign in the 2016 elections, Trump committed a crime that violated the electoral financing law.
Initially, Merchan had set November 12 as the deadline to rule on presidential immunity. Although when the expected day arrived, the judge announced that he was delaying the date again until this Tuesday the 19th.
In September, the judge had already announced that he was also postponing the sentence for the sentence in the Stormy Daniels case after the November 5 elections and set November 26 as a new date. The decision, as argued in the document presented, responded to the desire not to influence the possible outcome of the elections. Throughout the process, Trump has capitalized on the trial to show himself as the victim of alleged political persecution.
The strategy of postponing criminal trials until after the elections has proven to bear fruit: Trump will not only be spared the penalty of the conviction in the New York case, but the two federal cases will most likely be shelved, while The Georgia state trial has remained frozen for months.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith, in charge of the two federal cases – that of the classified Mar-a-Lago papers and that of the attempted assault on the Capitol – is already working to see how he closes both processes before Trump takes office. . Once he does, Pam Bondi, whom the Republican has nominated as his new attorney general, will have the power to dismiss them if they have not been closed before.
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