New York prosecutors oppose cancellation of trials requested by Donald Trump

The standoff between Donald Trump and justice is not yet over. The New York prosecutor's office has expressed its opposition to the future president's appeals to cancel two historic trials, including that of the Stormy Daniels affair, in which the billionaire was criminally convicted, in the spring of 2024.

“This court should reject the defense's motion to 'immediately' overturn the jury's indictment and guilty verdict based solely on the outcome of the last presidential election.”wrote, Tuesday, December 10, the New York State prosecutor for the jurisdiction of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg.

“There is currently no basis for such a cancellation before the inauguration of the accused [le 20 janvier 2025], because the immunity of an elected president does not exist”defends the magistrate in an argument addressed to the judge of the Manhattan 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 »explains the prosecutor.

Mr. Trump's lawyers had invoked the presidential pardon granted by Joe Biden to his son Hunter to demand that Judge Merchan “immediately vacates the indictment and jury verdict”.

Do not weigh in on the second Trump presidency

The 45^e and soon 47^e President of the United States 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 “phony”the Republican accused New York justice of being exploited by his Democratic adversaries.

The pronouncement of his sentence has been postponed many times and remains in abeyance, the defense using all possible recourses. Prosecutor Bragg 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 “penalty of incarceration” or that “the procedure is suspended during the mandate” of four years, until January 20, 2029.

A horizon that emerges

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 1^is July the field of presidential immunity and 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 four 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, M^me James replied: “Your letter offers no legal basis for [mes] services seek to overturn the final judgment and drop this case ».