A New York judge decided Friday that Donald Trump will return to the courthouse before he leaves for the White House.
Ten days before his inauguration on January 20, Justice Juan Merchan will punish Trump for his crimes on January 10 in a court session that will be unprecedented in America’s 248-year history. The $130,000 alleged “hush money” payment that Trump’s then-attorney, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 election was the reason for his conviction in New York.
Two months of speculation and back-and-forth wrangling between Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after Trump’s narrow election victory on November 5 have come to a conclusion with Justice Juan Merchan’s decision.
In May, a unanimous jury in the New York case declared Trump guilty, making him the first former president ever convicted of a criminal offense. The case’s sentencing was put on hold for months as Trump ran for re-election. He became the first person with a felony conviction to be elected president in November.
In a request to dismiss, the president-elect had claimed that his inauguration as president required his conviction to be overturned. On Friday, Merchan stated that it didn’t.
In his decision, Merchan stated that Trump will not receive a prison sentence. Prosecutors concur with this ruling, he wrote. Additionally, he stated that Trump might participate in the sentencing proceedings remotely rather than in person. “Only by bringing finality to this matter” will the interests of justice be served, Merchan wrote.
Steven Cheung, the director of Trump communications, reaffirmed that the case should be rejected outright since Trump has consistently called it unconstitutional.
“There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead,” Cheung said in a statement.
Merchan ruled that Trump does not have the same immunity as a sitting president because he is currently the president-elect. He also did not need the verdict to be overturned and the case dismissed, which the judge called “drastic” and “rare.”
