Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the criminal trial in which former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) was found guilty by a New York jury, announced this Friday (6) that the sentence will only be announced after the presidential election, scheduled for November 5 and in which the tycoon will once again be the Republican candidate for the White House.
According to CNN, Merchan said in a statement that the sentence will only be announced on November 26, if necessary – before that, on November 12, he will announce whether or not he will overturn the verdict in light of a decision from the United States Supreme Court in early July.
The final instance of the American Judiciary granted partial immunity to American presidents and former presidents for “official acts” during their terms in office and Trump’s defense claims that the New York process should be extinguished because of this.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office does not think so, as it understands that the case involves purely personal conduct and not official presidential acts, but did not oppose a request by the defense for the announcement of the sentence to be postponed until after the presidential election.
In Friday’s statement, Merchan wrote that he decided to postpone the election so that there would be no accusations of favoritism or disadvantage to any candidate in the race for the White House – Trump’s opponent is Democrat Kamala Harris.
“Postpone the decision on the motion [da defesa de Trump, pedindo a anulação do processo] and the judgment, if necessary, must dispel any suggestion that the court has issued any decision or imposed any sentence to give an advantage or create a disadvantage to any political party and/or any candidate for any office,” the judge said.
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.
After the verdict, Merchan had said Trump’s sentence would be announced on July 11, but postponed the announcement until September 18 due to the Supreme Court’s ruling. Now, he has set another delay.
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