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Former/future U.S. president Donald Trump must appear before a New York judge ten days before his scheduled inauguration in Washington, D.C. to be sentenced on nearly three dozen criminal charges.
Trump, 78, was found guilty last May on thirty-four counts related to his role in a scandal related to hush money paid on his behalf to adult entertainer Stormy Daniels on the eve of his election in 2016. By virtue of those verdicts, he became the first former U.S. president — and first major party presidential nominee — ever convicted of a criminal offense.
“A rigged trial by a conflicted judge who is corrupt,” Trump said at the time. “We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over!”
In a ruling Friday (January 3, 2025), New York supreme court judge Juan Merchan refused to toss Trump’s convictions – which the president-elect is appealing – and scheduled a sentencing hearing for Trump on January 10, 2025 at 9:30 a.m. EST.
Worth noting, Merchan’s ruling (.pdf) specifically gave Trump the option “to appear virtually for this proceeding, if he so chooses.”
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More critically, the judge has also stated he would not order Trump to be incarcerated.
“It seems proper at this juncture to make known the court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence authorized by the conviction but one the people concede they no longer view as a practicable recommendation,” Merchan wrote. “A sentence of unconditional discharge appears to be the most viable solution to ensure finality and allow (Trump) to pursue his appellate options.”
Merchan’s eleventh hour acknowledgement that sentencing Trump to prison is no longer “practicable” marks arguably the most significant rearguard march of the litigious phalanx the lightning rod politician was staring down.
Attorneys for Trump previously moved to have these verdicts tossed based on rulings by the U.S. supreme court which acknowledged limited presidential immunity from criminal charges. Meanwhile, prosecutors on the case have argued Trump’s sentencing should be deferred until after he leaves the White House at the conclusion of his second, non-consecutive term.
Trump’s transition office blasted the ruling regardless…
“Today’s order by the deeply conflicted, acting justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA witch hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence,” a statement noted. “This lawless case should have never been brought and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed. President Trump must be allowed to continue the presidential transition process and to execute the vital duties of the presidency, unobstructed by the remains of this or any remnants of the witch hunts. There should be no sentencing, and president Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
To recap: Trump and Daniels had an affair in 2006, according to the porn star. Daniels claimed she first had sex with Trump at a Lake Tahoe, Nevada hotel suite that year. Subsequent encounters were alleged to have taken place at a hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
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Disbarred lawyer Michael D. Cohen – Trump’s longtime personal attorney – paid Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 as part of a private settlement agreement which prohibited her from discussing her “intimate relationship” with the Trump. Cohen acknowledged paying Daniels the money in 2018, claiming he neither sought nor received reimbursement from Trump, any of his businesses or his political campaign.
Those statements turned out to be false – and Cohen was later convicted for his role in the scandal.
Trump was indicted on charges related to the payout in March 2023 – the beginning of a multi-jurisdictional legal jihad against the GOP nominee which wound up galvanizing his support among broad swaths of the electorate and exposing the weaponization of “justice” under the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
If the goal of these prosecutions was to finish Trump off, the plan backfired spectacularly. Instead, the cases ultimately propelled him to the GOP nomination… and the White House.
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THE RULING…
(New York Supreme Court)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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