Judge delays sentencing Trump in Stormy Daniels case until after election

Judge Juan Merchan decided this Friday to postpone the sentence against Donald Trump for the Stormy Daniels case, in which he was found guilty of 34 crimes, becoming the first former president to be convicted of a crime, with the peculiarity that he is also running as a candidate with a chance of returning to the White House. Merchan postponed his ruling, which was scheduled for September 18, until after the elections, in what is a great victory for the Republican candidate. The trials of the other three cases for which he is accused have also been postponed until after the elections, if they are held at all. Voters will go to the polls without knowing if they are voting for a candidate who could end up in jail.

Trump was convicted of falsifying invoices, checks and accounting records to conceal $130,000 in payments to porn star Stormy Daniels — to keep her quiet and not hurt his 2016 presidential hopes. Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, though the sentences for each offense can be served concurrently. In cases like Trump’s, it is unlikely that he will ever go to prison, though it is not out of the question. Typically, the convicted person will be released on probation or fined.

The judge had already postponed the sentence, which was initially scheduled for July 11, once. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling two months ago granting broad criminal immunity to the presidents for their official acts, Judge Merchan gave the parties a deadline to present their arguments and had provisionally set a new sentencing date of September 18 and a ruling on immunity of September 16.

Trump asked that the ruling be delayed until after the November 5 presidential election, arguing that a ruling just weeks before the vote would be a form of election interference. Now, the judge has granted his request.

Donald Trump’s earlier move to further delay the case failed on Tuesday. The former president’s defense asked a federal court to take over the case, which would have extended the proceedings indefinitely and prevented a ruling before the November 5 presidential election. Judge Alvin Hellerstein, however, refused to have jurisdiction over the case. in a forceful four-page resolution.

Trump wanted the case moved to federal court precisely so he could seek to vacate the verdict and dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s ruling on July 1. “Nothing in the Supreme Court’s ruling affects my prior conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” said his resolution.

On Thursday, in the Washington case in which Trump is charged with four crimes for trying to interfere in the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden, Judge Tanya Chutkan issued a two-page order outlining the next steps. There will be no trial before the election, but the prosecutor will be able to present new evidence and documents in support of his charges, including transcripts of statements before the grand jury that decided to indict Trump, as early as September. That evidence, some of it never seen before, will therefore be available before voters go to the polls.

Sexual abuse

In his busy court schedule, Donald Trump went to another New York court on Friday to appeal against the jury’s verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in a civil suit brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll. The jury ordered Trump to pay five million dollars to the victim. In another subsequent defamation suit by Carroll, another jury ordered him to pay an additional 83 million dollars.

Trump’s motorcade was greeted outside the court by protesters carrying signs accusing him of being “guilty,” “rapist,” “criminal,” and “psychopath,” among other things.

Before the Court of Appeals, Trump’s lawyer, John Sauer, has argued that the trial was tainted by inappropriate evidence. “This case is a textbook example of implausible allegations buttressed by highly incendiary and inadmissible evidence,” he said, according to AP, noting that the jury was allowed to consider elements such as the infamous tape of the show. Access Hollywood in which Trump boasted years ago about grabbing women’s genitals.

Trump’s lawyers also argue that a new trial should be held in part because the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, improperly allowed two other women to testify about similar acts of sexual abuse they say Trump committed against them in the 1970s and in 2005.

Carroll recounted in his book Why do we need men? A humble proposal that Trump had raped her in the changing room of a luxury department store in Manhattan in 1995 or 1996. At the time, Carroll was hosting the television show Ask E. Jean, Inspired by his famous magazine column She, a successful sexual and emotional consulting service.

In her book, Carroll recounted that she ran into Trump by chance at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York and he asked her to help him find a gift for a woman. The columnist said Trump took her first to the handbag section, then to the hat section, and finally to the lingerie section. According to her account, Trump grabbed a body He asked her to try it on and accompanied her. “The moment the changing room door is closed, he lunges at me, pushes me against the wall, hitting my head quite hard, and puts his mouth on my lips. I am so shocked that I push him back and start laughing. He grabs both my arms, holds me against the wall with his shoulders, forcefully puts his hands under my dress and pulls down my stockings. I am amazed at what I am going to write: I am still laughing. The next moment (…) he pulls down his fly and, forcing his fingers through my private part, pushes his penis halfway inside me, or completely, I am not sure.” After a struggle between the two, she managed to escape and run away, she said.

The jury did not find rape proven, but there was abuse. Carroll, 80, testified at the trial, but Trump preferred not to submit to questions from the lawyers. On Friday, both attended the hearing before the Court of Appeals. The former president was not required to be in court, but he took the opportunity to present himself as a martyr victim of political persecution in a later appearance.

Trump has called the court’s initial ruling “ridiculous,” as he has done many times. He has also said that he has never met Carroll and does not even know who she is, although he later acknowledged that they appear together in a photo, which he downplayed. He has also referred to other cases and said that the judges are very “hostile” towards him. A decision on this appeal is not expected before the elections.