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Will Democrats learn a lesson in the law? We'll soon find out.
A week after President Trump's landslide victory, a lawsuit is scheduled in a New York state court in which the president-elect must continue to address 34 business record felony charges that a Manhattan jury convicted this spring. It won't happen. Judge Juan Melchan is scheduled to rule on President Trump's motion to vacate the guilty verdict. Team Trump is calling on District Attorney Alvin Bragg to recklessly include evidence of official acts in his prosecution based on the Supreme Court's July 1 ruling that former presidents have a presumptive immunity for acts of official conduct. Because of this choice, they argue that the case should be thrown out.
Judge Juan Melchan, a Democratic activist, ruled against Mr. Trump with numbing regularity throughout the trial. Beyond the prologue, we should expect Mr. Marchan to deny Mr. Trump's immunity claims. Then things get interesting.
In addition to issuing a judgment of immunity on November 12th, Marchan expects to sentence the president-elect on November 26th. And while the lawsuit is ridiculous, the judge alleges that President Trump falsified business records to hide a legal non-disclosure agreement, the judge took lightly. The prosecutor's farcical claim to the jury that President Trump conspired to steal the 2016 election. This will gradually increase the pressure on courts to impose a fixed period of imprisonment.
Trump, of course, never wants a verdict, and certainly not a moment of victory. He has some cards to play in that regard.
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Unlike most claims of negligence in criminal trials, immunity is subject to immediate review by the High Court, and the defense does not have to wait until after conviction to appeal. In fact, that's why Trump's federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., has been on ice for nearly a year. Trump's lawyers will therefore argue that he should be able to appeal Marchand's immunity before sentencing through New York's two appellate levels and possibly to the U.S. Supreme Court. That may take a year or two.
Mr. Bragg would counter that this was an unusual situation in which the issue of immunity did not become a serious issue until after the trial. Therefore, the argument could be made that it would make more sense to move forward with sentencing and then go to appellate court, since immunity could be raised in addition to the many other appellate claims that President Trump anticipates. .
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It will be interesting to see how the New York courts decide on this matter.
Understand, even if Marchan is sentenced to prison, Trump is not going to jail. Although the charges are felonies, they are not serious enough to warrant immediate detention under New York state law. Trump will likely be granted bail pending appeal.
Given that Mr. Trump will not be sent to Rikers Island by a Manhattan judge in any case, it would be wise to postpone sentencing and allow Mr. Trump to proceed with his appeal for immunity. That would avoid the embarrassing situation of being convicted and sentenced just as the next U.S. president is about to take office.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MAY 30: Former President Donald Trump appears at his hush money trial in Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. Judge Juan Melchan gave instructions to the jury, and deliberations are now in their second day. The former president faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first criminal case to go to trial. (Stephen Hirsch Pool/Getty Images)
If the appeals court does not put the sentencing on hold, Trump will remain free pending his appeal, a process that could take more than a year.
Under these circumstances, the Department of Justice should ask state-level courts and, if necessary, federal courts, to halt further proceedings in the New York criminal case until the end of President Trump's term.
This will not put Trump above the law. This incident will not go away. It is simply suspended so that the states are not in a position to interfere with the federal government's ability to govern, a principle central to the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.
That being said, this incident should go away.
One might hope that the lesson for Democrats from President Trump's landslide victory is that the law is un-American. Voters were clearly unsettled by the Democratic Party's use of law enforcement and the judicial process as a weapon against its main political opponents. Democrats would be wise to absorb that lesson and avoid pushing through legislation after Americans returned President Trump to the White House despite these allegations.
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By pardoning his predecessor and his successor, President Biden can finally set a strong example as a politician — nearing retirement, and act like the unifying president he first promised to be. . That would certainly make it easier for the public to accept the president's inevitable pardon for his son Hunter, who is awaiting sentencing on gun and tax charges. It also could give Gov. Kathy Hochul the political space she needs to pardon Trump for pandering to New York progressives. If possible, Democrats may be reading into Trump's gains in traditional constituencies in the Empire State.
The law was terrible for the country. The landslide victory the American people gave Trump should be his death sentence.
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