OAN Staff Abril Elfi
11:34 AM – Tuesday, November 19, 2024
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg has agreed to postpone President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his so-called “hush money” case. However, he has not dropped the case and maintains that he doesn’t plan to.
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On Tuesday, Bragg stated in a letter to Judge Juan Merchan that Trump is not likely to be sentenced “until after the end of [the] Defendant’s upcoming presidential term.” However, he did assert that the felony conviction should stand, in his opinion.
“No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on official conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” the district attorney’s office wrote.
A New York court found Trump guilty of 34 felonies related to allegedly manipulating business records pertaining to a $130,000 payment made by his former attorney, Michael Cohen, to porn star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and maintains that he never had sexual relations with Daniels.
Trump had been scheduled to be sentenced on November 26th, but last week, Merchan put all proceedings in the case on pause at the request of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office.
“Merchan can move to either delay Trump’s sentencing until after he leaves the White House, can dismiss the conviction outright, or can grant a sentence of unconditional discharge, which would leave the conviction intact but free Trump from any prison time, fines, or probation,” Fox News reported.
The prosecutors had asked for more time to consider the next steps in the case, citing the need to balance the “competing interests” between having the criminal case go forward and protecting the office of the incoming president-elect.
Meanwhile, Trump’s defense lawyer had urged the judge to dismiss the case due to the “unconstitutional impediments” to his ability to govern.
He had also argued that the conviction should be vacated and the charges dismissed because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in July that presidents cannot be prosecuted over their official acts, and that evidence of their official acts cannot be used in trials over personal behavior.
In a statement response to Bragg’s decision, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the file “a total and definitive victory for President Trump.”
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