New York court opposes overturning Trump convictions

The courts of New York State, which convicted Donald Trump this year in two major criminal and civil cases, ruled on Tuesday against appeals by the future president to cancel his two historic trials.

In the case of his criminal conviction in the spring in the so-called trial Stormy DanielsNew York prosecutors for the Manhattan jurisdiction, however, suggested a freeze in the procedure until the end of the second term of the soon-to-be 47th President of the United States, on January 20, 2029.

This court should reject the defense’s appeal to “immediately” overturn the jury’s indictment and guilty verdict, based solely on the outcome of the last presidential election.argued Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg.

There is currently no basis for such a cancellation before the inauguration of the accused (January 20), because the immunity of a president-elect does not existdefends the magistrate in an argument addressed to the judge of the Manhattan criminal court, Juan Merchan, who must decide.

And even after the inauguration, his temporary immunity as president in office would not justify radically rejecting a guilty verdict voted unanimously by the jurors and erasing with a stroke of the pen all the completed stages of this criminal procedure.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers last week invoked the presidential pardon granted by Joe Biden to his son Hunter to demand that Judge Merchan immediately quashes the indictment and jury verdict.

The next president was found criminally guilty in May of concealed payments of $130,000, before the 2016 presidential election, to a pornographic film actress, Stormy Daniels, so that she would keep quiet about a sexual encounter ten years earlier.

A relationship that Mr. Trump has always denied. Describing the case as canthe Republican leader accused the Justice of New York, a Democratic state, of being exploited by his political adversaries.

The pronouncement of his sentence has been postponed many times and remains in abeyance, the defense using all possible recourses.

Arrangements

Prosecutor Bragg therefore proposes to the judge arrangements so that the criminal procedure does not weighs not on the second Trump presidency: that the condemned person should not be imposed a incarceration sentence or that the procedure is suspended during the mandate of four years.

Convicted once criminally and three times civilly in New York, Donald Trump saw his judicial horizon at the federal level completely cleared by the abandonment of at least two criminal proceedings, thanks to a ruling by the Supreme Court which expanded the scope of presidential immunity on July 1 and for his re-election on November 5.

In civil court, he was sentenced in February by the Manhattan courts to $454 million in fines, with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., for financial fraud within their real estate empire. Trump Organization.

But their lawyer John Sauer, who will soon be number 4 at the Department of Justice, demanded in writing at the end of November that the Attorney General of the State of New York, Letitia James, completely drops the case against President Donald J. Trump, his family, his businesses and vacates the judgment and all damages.

By letter posted Tuesday on social networks, Ms. James responded: Your letter offers no legal basis for [mes] services seek to overturn the final judgment and drop this case.