Just one day after the Supreme Court declared that presidents are above the law and can basically commit whatever crimes they’d like so long as said crimes are part of their “official” duties, a Manhattan judge delayed Donald Trump’s criminal sentencing in the New York hush money case. That sentencing was scheduled to take place on July 11, and now it won’t happen until September 18. Pretty sweet deal for the former guy!
In late May, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election. At the time, it seemed like perhaps the one criminal case against the ex-president that would result in actual accountability, given that the others—the federal cases over election interference and classified documents, as well as the Georgia election case—would likely not go to trial until at least after November, if they ever did. But thanks to the Supreme Court, that small measure of accountability may soon vanish, as a result of the absolutely insane ruling that presidents are “immune” from prosecution for official acts taken while in office—including, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned in her dissent, an act like ordering Seal Team 6 “to assassinate a political rival.” (To be clear, nothing in the Constitution imbues the president with these kingly—nay, emperor-worthy—powers; the Court’s conservative justices simply decided to upend some 250 years of history because they appear to have a soft spot for a guy who has pledged to be a “dictator” on day one of his potential second term.)
Hours after the Court’s ruling, attorneys for Trump sent a letter to Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the hush money case, asking for permission to file a motion to scrap the guilty conviction and for him to delay sentencing while considering that request. Prosecutors did not object to the ask, and Merchan granted it Tuesday afternoon.
You might be wondering to yourself how Trump could use Monday’s Supreme Court decision, which pertains to acts taken while holding the office of president, to nix a guilty conviction over a crime that took place before he had the actual job. Kinda seems like total bullshit, you might say. Luckily for Trump, though, his pals on the high court appear to have accounted for that.
Per The New York Times:
The ruling appears to have little direct bearing on the Manhattan case, which concerns Mr. Trump’s personal activity during the 2016 campaign, not his presidency or official acts…. Yet Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued on Monday that prosecutors had built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. And under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only cannot charge a president for any official acts, but also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.
Good times. While it’s at it, maybe the Court should just print Trump a literal get-out-of-jail-free card, as that’s what Monday’s decision apparently allows him to do.
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