Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the criminal case against former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) in the case of payment to a porn actress, decided this Tuesday (2) to postpone the announcement of the Republican’s sentence until September 18, “if it is still necessary”.
The decision was announced just hours after prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office sent a letter to the judge saying they were “open” to the possibility of delaying the sentencing, initially scheduled for March 11, by at least two weeks.
Lawyers for the Republican had filed a request on Monday (1st) for the announcement of the sentence to be postponed so they could assess whether the United States Supreme Court’s understanding of partial immunity for American presidents and former presidents could influence the New York case.
The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that current or former occupants of the highest office in the US executive branch can claim immunity for “official acts” carried out during their terms in office.
Although the US Supreme Court’s decision concerns a challenge by Trump to a lower court ruling that had ruled that he would not be entitled to immunity in the Washington case that is investigating whether he was responsible for the invasion of the Capitol by his supporters in January 2021 (when Trump was still president), it is still uncertain how this will be reflected in the other three criminal cases against the Republican, including the one in New York.
According to the Supreme Court’s decision, it will be up to lower court judges to decide what are “official acts” of a president or not.
In late May, Trump was found guilty by a jury in New York on 34 counts of falsifying company records to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels so she would not reveal before the 2016 election a relationship they allegedly had ten years earlier.
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