Donald Trump will be sentenced on January 10 in the Stormy Daniels case, the judge ruled in the case on Friday.
Mr. Trump failed Friday in his attempt to use his presidential power to dismiss the case in which he was convicted of secretly paying his campaign money to buy the silence of porn star Stormy Daniels.
In rejecting Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss, Judge Juan Merchan said the Republican president-elect must appear, either virtually or in person, on the day the sentence is pronounced, set for January 10, 2025.
Mr. Trump will be able to appear in person in court, in the south of the big New York island of Manhattan, or remotely by video, but he will have to make his preference
by Sunday, according to the magistrate.
The judge clarified that he was not inclined to impose a sentence of incarceration
to the man who, on January 20, will become the 47th president of the United States, even if such sentence is incurred in the conviction
.
On May 30, Donald Trump, 45th American president, was the first former tenant of the White House to be criminally convicted in the history of the country.
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Justice Juan Merchan (pictured in his office at New York State Supreme Court) also presided over the Trump Organization’s 2022 tax fraud criminal trial.
Photo : Associated Press / Seth Wenig
A spokesman for Donald Trump , Steven Chung, said thatthere should be no sentence
in this matter.
Donald Trump denies any sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels.
It was Mr. Trump’s second request to have the case dismissed since his conviction. His lawyers had argued that having this case hanging over him during his presidency would hamper his ability to govern.
Justice Merchan rejected this argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would undermine the rule of law in immeasurable ways
.
Mr. Trump has sought to take the case to federal court, where he could also assert his immunity. A federal judge repeatedly refused, but Mr. Trump appealed.
Last May, Donald Trump was found guilty of 34 forgery offenses by a jury for trying to conceal the payment of $130,000 to porn actress Stormy Daniels in an attempt to cover up a sex scandal during of his first electoral campaign, in 2016.
He was initially due to receive his sentence at the end of November, but the same magistrate decided to postpone the sentence.
The case was the only one of Mr. Trump’s four criminal charges to go to trial.
Since the election, special prosecutor Jack Smith has closed his two federal cases. One concerned the president-elect’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat; the other claimed he kept classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property.
Another state-level election interference case in Georgia is largely unresolved.
With information from Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press
