Thus, with this sentencing by Judge Juan Merchan, more than seven months after being found guilty by a jury of 12 unanimous citizens in a Manhattan criminal court, Donald Trump will enter on January 20, at the age of 78, at the White House with the label of a habitual criminal.
But the burden will be above all symbolic, for the one who escaped any legal consequences in the three other cases in which he had been indicted, including the most serious before the federal courts for his illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election of 2020.
In this case, special prosecutor Jack Smith abandoned the prosecution after the election of Donald Trump on November 5, when the trial had not started.
The future president is not forced to come in person to the Manhattan criminal court, the judge having granted him the possibility of appearing by video at the hearing scheduled for 9:30 a.m. (2:30 p.m. GMT).
The magistrate, whom Donald Trump had showered with insults on social networks, also guaranteed that a prison sentence, “impossible to implement”, was excluded for the one who is preparing to govern the first world power.
“Middle finger”
Juan Merchan indicated that he was inclined to pronounce a waiver of sentence having the effect of confirming the guilt of Donald Trump and thus allowing him to appeal.
“It’s a middle finger (from Donald Trump) to the judge, the jury, and justice,” the former New York prosecutor and law professor at Pace University told AFP. , Bennett Gershman.
-Last spring, the man who was still a presidential candidate had to go almost every day for six weeks to a courtroom with the outdated and summary decor of the criminal court, and attend the debates in this case mixing politics, money and scandal sexual.
The jury found him guilty of 34 counts of accounting falsification to hide from voters the payment of $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels, at the end of his first victorious campaign in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, whose trial had revealed behind the scenes.
The money was paid to buy the actress’ silence about a sexual relationship she claimed to have had in 2006 with the former real estate mogul, a relationship he has always denied.
Assailed by lawyers’ appeals and following a major decision by the Supreme Court on July 1 on presidential immunity, Judge Merchan had to postpone sentencing several times, from July to September, then to November, after the presidential election.
Donald Trump’s victory triggered a new round of appeals from the defense, but Juan Merchan maintained the sentence.
As in the other cases in which he was prosecuted, Donald Trump presented himself as the victim of a “witch hunt” orchestrated by his political adversaries, a speech that he tirelessly made and of which his supporters were convinced, in a countries where polls show that trust in institutions has significantly eroded in recent years.
