The People of the State of New York v. Donald J. Trump was the one criminal case against the former president that actually went to trial. Now that Mr. Trump has reclaimed the presidency, it, too, is in jeopardy.
More than five months after a Manhattan jury convicted Mr. Trump on charges that he falsified records to cover up a sex scandal, Mr. Trump has yet to receive his punishment and is expected to use his electoral victory to delay it again.
Mr. Trump — the first former president to become a felon and the first felon to be elected president — is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 26. His lawyers will probably soon ask the judge overseeing the case to delay it indefinitely.
If the judge grants the request, the 78-year-old defendant might never face consequences for his crimes, or at least not for years. And although he is still fighting three other criminal cases, two are federal and he will soon have the authority to shut them down.
Here’s what we know about the status of Mr. Trump’s New York criminal conviction in the wake of his Election Day victory.
Will he still be sentenced this month?
Mr. Trump’s victory provided him a way to wriggle out of his sentencing — and he might well succeed.
As soon as this week, he is expected to ask the judge, Justice Juan M. Merchan, to grant another delay. He could argue that the sentencing would become a major distraction during the presidential transition, impeding his ability to pick a cabinet and take office. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Mr. Trump, will get a chance to respond and then Justice Merchan will decide.
After granting two prior delays, Justice Merchan might once again be amenable to postponing.
And even if he is not, Mr. Trump can appeal his decision and seek an emergency pause of the sentencing. A single appellate court judge could then either grant the request or by denying it give him reason to take the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices he appointed.
Can he get the conviction thrown out?
Mr. Trump has already asked Justice Merchan to throw out his indictment and conviction, citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling this summer. In that case, the high court held that a former president was “entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.”
Manhattan prosecutors have argued that the ruling had “no bearing” on this case, noting that Mr. Trump’s cover-up of the sex scandal was unrelated to his presidency.
Justice Merchan is expected to issue his decision on throwing out the conviction Tuesday.
While the request is a long shot for Mr. Trump, the judge will not have the final say. The former president’s lawyers will undoubtedly ask a New York appeals court to halt the sentencing while they challenge any adverse decision, potentially all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Can Trump pardon himself?
No. The prosecution was brought by state prosecutors, rather than the federal government, and the presidential pardon does not extend to state cases.
If Trump is still sentenced, what punishment could he receive?
Mr. Trump was convicted of Class E felonies, the lowest category of felony in New York, and faces up to four year in prison. Mr. Trump, a first-time felon and a senior citizen, was always unlikely to receive the full punishment.
Still, a New York Times analysis showed that since 2014, over a third of the defendants sentenced in Manhattan to the most serious charge of falsifying business records served time behind bars.
If Mr. Trump is sentenced to jail, it would likely be a matter of weeks or months, not years. The judge could also sentence him to a term of probation. Mr. Trump would then be subject to certain conditions, such as staying out of trouble and not associating with disreputable people, and be required to regularly report to the city’s Probation Department.
But can a president-elect go to jail?
It is longstanding Justice Department policy that a sitting president cannot face criminal prosecution. That prohibition would extend to a president being incarcerated, which, the policy notes, “would make it physically impossible for the President to carry out his duties.”
Though New York courts are not automatically bound by that policy, they would almost certainly honor it. And while the policy technically applies only to a sitting president, Mr. Trump’s lawyers would argue that it should extend to a president-elect as well.
If he gets jail time, would he be incarcerated immediately?
It is highly unlikely. Justice Merchan can postpone the sentence until after his second term expires. If for some reason the judge did not, Mr. Trump could ask an appeals court to immediately intervene.
What was he convicted of?
Mr. Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from a $130,000 hush-money payment that Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made to the porn star Stormy Daniels in the days leading up to the 2016 election, suppressing her story of a sexual liaison with Mr. Trump.
Prosecutors argued that Mr. Trump had directed Mr. Cohen to make the payment and then covered it up through reimbursements falsely classified as ordinary legal expenses. Each of the 34 counts corresponds to an invoice, check or ledger related to these repayments.
Who is Justice Merchan?
A veteran Manhattan judge and a former prosecutor, Justice Merchan is known to be tough on white-collar crimes. During the trial, the drama-averse judge was continually attacked by Mr. Trump, who accused him of being “biased” and “corrupt.”
At the request of prosecutors, the judge imposed a gag order prohibiting Mr. Trump from attacking witnesses, prosecutors and jurors. And when Mr. Trump expanded his attacks to Justice Merchan’s daughter, a Democratic strategist, the judge revised his gag order to protect his own family — and those of prosecutors — from Mr. Trump’s vitriol.
Wasn’t the sentencing supposed to be before Election Day?
Mr. Trump was originally scheduled to be sentenced July 11. But just days beforehand came the U.S. Supreme Court decision granting him broad immunity for official actions he took as president, prompting him to seek a delay of the sentencing.
Justice Merchan agreed to postpone until September, when he agreed to another delay until Nov. 26, this time to avoid a collision with the election.
Postponing until after Election Day, he wrote at the time, “best advances the interests of justice.”
The post What to Know About Trump’s New York Criminal Case After the Election appeared first on New York Times.
