President-elect Donald Trump vented late Friday about a New York jurist who scheduled Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money case for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration.
The Context
Although Juan Merchan, acting justice on the New York State Supreme Court, set Trump’s sentencing, he indicated he would hand the president-elect an “unconditional discharge” on January 10, which means releasing a defendant without any punishment.
The announcement marks one more legal victory for Trump, who since winning the 2024 election has seen the criminal cases against him grow weaker or be dismissed altogether, thanks to a landmark Supreme Court ruling that said former presidents have some immunity for actions relating to the core powers of the Oval Office.
What To Know
“Every Legal Scholar and Pundit” has “unequivocally stated that the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt is a nonexistent case, which is not only barred by the Statute of Limitations but, on the merits, should never have been brought,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
He went on to call it a “rigged charade,” adding that Merchan “is a radical partisan.”
Merchan, who presided over Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.’s criminal case against Trump, said Friday that sentencing Trump to an unconditional discharge was the “most viable solution to ensure finality and allow Defendant to pursue his appellate options.”
Still, Trump fumed that Merchan’s decision to schedule the sentencing hearing in the first place “goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the Presidency as we know it.”
The president-elect then falsely claimed that Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was “‘sent packing’ back to The Hague” after he formally dropped his cases against Trump following his 2024 election win. Smith has not been accused of any war crimes.
Bragg’s case, in which Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment made to adult-film star Stormy Daniels amid Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was prosecutors’ best chance to secure legal consequences for the president-elect.
The federal cases against Trump have been dropped and a sprawling racketeering case against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia, has been largely stalled as the county’s district attorney, Fani Willis, fights conflict-of-interest allegations.
What People Are Saying
Steven Cheung, Trump’s incoming communications director, released the following statement: “Today’s order by the deeply convicted, Acting Justice Merchan in the Manhattan DA Witch Hunt is a direct violation of the Supreme Court’s Immunity decision and other longstanding jurisprudence. This lawless case should have never been brought and the Constitution demands that it be immediately dismissed … There should be no sentencing, and President Trump will continue fighting against these hoaxes until they are all dead.”
Political commentator Keith Olbermann criticized Merchan for not jailing Trump: “Merchan, you will recall, obeyed in advance and postponed Trump’s sentencing until after the election. Now, he won’t even attempt on a symbolic level to give Trump jail time – just an ‘unconditional discharge.’ It is farcical and cowardly. As is Judge Merchan.”
What Comes Next
January is a jam-packed month for Trump. He’ll attend late President Jimmy Carter‘s state funeral at Washington National Cathedral on January 9 before heading to New York for his sentencing the next day. Ten days later, the president-elect will be back in Washington, D.C., for his inauguration near the U.S. Capitol.
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