New York Judge Sets Sentencing Date In Trump’s Manhattan Trial
Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan has scheduled sentencing for President-elect Donald Trump in the case initiated by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Alongside the announcement, he delivered an unexpected decision.
The sentencing date was set for January 10, just one week before Trump’s inauguration. However, Merchan indicated that there would be no jail time as the president-elect continues to appeal the conviction, according to an Associated Press report.
The judge rejected the defense team’s motion to dismiss the conviction but suggested he would grant an unconditional discharge. This means the conviction remains, but the case is closed without jail time, fines, or probation imposed on the defendant.
“Indeed, the sanctity of a jury verdict and the deference that must be accorded to it is a bedrock principle in our Nation’s jurisprudence,” Judge Merchan remarked in his statement.
He elaborated on the constitutional distinction between the powers of a president and a president-elect, explaining: “The Constitution dictates that only a President, after taking the oath of office, has the authority of the Chief Executive. A President-elect does not. Accordingly, a President-elect is not permitted to avail himself of the protections afforded to the individual occupying that Office. … Binding precedent does not provide that an individual, upon becoming President, can retroactively dismiss or vacate prior criminal acts, nor does it grant blanket Presidential-elect immunity.”
Merchan dismissed arguments by Trump’s team as disingenuous. “Any claim Defendant may have that circumstances have changed as a result of Defendant’s victory in the Presidential election, while convenient, is disingenuous,” he said. “Defendant has always pronounced, since the inception of this case, confidence and indeed the expectation that he would prevail in the 2024 Election—confidence that has proven well-founded. … Thus, it was fair for this Court to trust that his request to adjourn sentencing until after the election carried with it the implied consent that he would face sentence during the window between the election and the taking of the oath of office.”
Judge Merchan underscored the gravity of the jury’s unanimous verdict: “Here, 12 jurors unanimously found Defendant guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records with the intent to defraud, which included an intent to commit or conceal a conspiracy to promote a presidential election by unlawful means. … To vacate this verdict on the grounds that the charges are insufficiently serious given the position Defendant once held, and is about to assume again, would constitute a disproportionate result and cause immeasurable damage to the citizenry’s confidence in the Rule.”
Trump responded to the ruling with a strongly worded post on Truth Social, calling the charges baseless and attacking the judge’s credibility.
“I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made-up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent, ME! He created a case where there was none. Keeps a ‘gag order’ on me so that I can’t talk about how crooked he is. The Fake News knows all about it, but they refuse to talk. He may be the most conflicted judge in New York State history,” Trump wrote.
He defended the records in question, stating: “The accountant testified, with total corroboration, that the records were perfect & totally above board. A legal expense was called, on the books, a legal expense. There was nothing else it could have been called. This was the so-called falsifying of records. I was hiding nothing, everything was out in the open for all to see. Every legal scholar of note said there IS NO CASE AGAINST ME. The judge should be disbarred!”
Trump also criticized other legal proceedings against him, writing: “In another crooked New York case, another corrupt Judge (overturned 5 times on my case alone, & the most overturned judge in New York!) valued Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, at $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount…. And then we have, also in New York, the woman I never met (celebrity photo lines from 30 years ago don’t count!), who was awarded almost $100,000,000. A totally out-of-control, Trump-hating judge, presided. The Biden/Harris DOJ was involved, directly or indirectly, in each of these cases. I won against Deranged Jack Smith!”