This decision considerably lightens the judicial calendar of the candidate for the White House in the immediate future. Because the sentence, which can be up to 4 years in prison, was initially to be pronounced four days before the Republican convention in Milwaukee (July 15-18), during which Donald Trump is to be officially invested as presidential candidate.
Judge Merchan, who presided over Donald Trump’s trial in April and May, the first criminal trial of a former US president, made his decision a few hours after the Manhattan prosecutor’s office said it was open to a postponement.
Request to annul the verdict
On Monday, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, Donald Trump’s lawyers wrote to the judge to ask for the annulment of the historic verdict delivered on May 30 by a unanimous jury: the former president of the United States had been found guilty of 34 crimes of falsifying accounting records to hide from voters the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, at the very end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
On his social network Truth Social, the Republican billionaire immediately reacted by assuring in capital letters that this is a “total exoneration”, while the judge has absolutely not ruled on the substance of the request.
The defense had already invoked its immunity in vain to derail part of the case. But for the lawyers, the decision handed down the day before by the conservative-majority Supreme Court, according to which the President of the United States “is entitled to at least a presumption of immunity for his official acts,” reshuffles the cards.
“During the trial and closing arguments, the prosecution placed a highly prejudicial emphasis on evidence derived from official acts, such as testimony about events that occurred in the Oval Office … social media posts (on Donald Trump’s accounts as president) and phone records involving Donald Trump while he was in office in 2017,” they argue in a preparatory document for their appeal, made public Tuesday. The Manhattan district attorney’s office considers these arguments “without merit” but did not oppose consideration of the request.
If Donald Trump, 78, faces prison, the judge can also impose an alternative sentence such as a suspended sentence. He will be able to appeal, but in any case it would be an unprecedented scenario for a candidate for the White House.
