Left to right: Donald Trump (AP Photo/Mike Roemer), New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan (AP Photo/Seth Wenig), Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II).
There is still no word Friday from New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on whether he will agree to delay former President Donald Trump’s sentencing following his conviction of 34 counts of falsification of business records following his hush-money and election interference jury trial in Manhattan.
The Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling has wreaked havoc on Trump’s case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and in other venues where the former president is criminally charged.
But in New York, the only venue where Trump was charged and convicted, defense attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche contend that the high court’s ruling has effectively put a damper on any “official acts” they argue were presented in evidence. The immunity decision translates to the guilty verdict being overturned or at the very least, they have argued, it should warrant a new trial where protected “official” conduct would not be admitted.
Trump, Blanche and Bove insist the former president may not be prosecuted for exercising his “core constitutional powers.”
Merchan’s silence on the request to delay sentencing currently set for Sept. 18 may indicate the judge is methodically poring over this decision. Bragg wasn’t much help: while he scoffed at Trump’s “bizarre” arguments to delay until after the election, he also didn’t stand in the way.
The wisdom on whether Trump should be sentenced without delay was explored this week by Law&Crime in an op-ed from trial lawyer and legal analyst Bradford Cohen.
Cohen, with his 27 years handling white-collar cases in federal and state courts, said he felt confident the right course of action would be to continue sentencing until after the presidential election.
“Most attorneys will agree,” he said, noting that the trial was “marred by procedural irregularities and concerns of prosecutorial overreach.”
Merchan is expected to issue his ruling on the immunity issue on Sept. 12 — just four days before sentencing. Cohen argues that whatever his ruling is, it would dictate whether appellate issues could be raised that would, and once again, delay sentencing.
At least one legal analyst feels differently: Norman Eisen, the co-founder and a board member of State Democracy Defenders Action and the Brookings Institute senior fellow and legal analyst, argued in an op-ed for MSNBC on Aug. 20 that there is no cause to delay because the Manhattan case concerned unofficial conduct: a presidential candidate who conspired to interfere in the 2016 election by covering up payments he made to a porn star and then falsifying those records is not conduct covered by the “official” category.
Whatever lawyers and legal experts may think, it will be Merchan who makes the call and by Monday, there will be only 70 days left until Election Day.
Law&Crime takes a look at this and other key developments in Trump’s cases in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, D.C.
NEW YORK
CRIMINAL
Still no word from acting New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan on whether there will be a delay of sentencing for the former president turned convicted felon. Sentencing is currently set for Sept. 18 and Trump’s lawyers would like it delayed past the 2024 election.
CIVIL
New York Attorney General Letitia James urged an appellate court to uphold Trump’s roughly $500 million civil fraud judgment ahead of oral arguments slated for next month.
In a separate civil matter, barring any last minute delays, the E. Jean Carroll case has oral arguments of its own slated for Sept. 6. The GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee was found liable for defamation and sexual abuse in the first case involving the veteran writer and a jury awarded her $5.5 million in damages.
Left: New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks to the media, Nov. 6, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File); Center: Justice Engoron. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File); Right: Former President Donald Trump speaks during a break in closing arguments at New York Supreme Court, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
GEORGIA
CRIMINAL
All is quiet in the racketeering (RICO) and election subversion case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It remains delayed until 2025 but of note this week in the Peach State as it pertains to Trump was a decision handed down by Republican Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Carr shot down an effort by local Republicans to reopen an investigation into whether votes in the state were “stolen” from Trump.
No votes were stolen from Trump in 2020, according to the nation’s intelligence agencies and officials at the U.S. Justice Department including members of Trump’s own administration like former Attorney General Bill Barr.
While the door has closed on relitigating 2020 Georgia state election results, it is worth noting, as Law&Crime reported weeks ago: there’s potential for new drama ahead. In case you missed it, the Trump-backed Georgia election board recently enacted a new rule that is poised to cause major headaches in vote certification for the state in November.
Background: This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records stored in a bathroom and shower in the Lake Room at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (Justice Department via AP). Inset left to right: Special Counsel Jack Smith. Aug. 1, 2023 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File); U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon (U.S. Senate via AP); Donald Trump in Rome, Georgia, at a rally March 9, 2024 (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File).
FLORIDA
CRIMINAL
The Justice Department has not yet responded to Trump’s claim of nearly $100 million in punitive damages following U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon‘s dismissal of his indictment for allegedly illegally retaining classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago property.
Left: Former President Donald Trump arrives at the courtroom for his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura). Right: Attorney General Merrick Garland delivers a statement at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images).
WASHINGTON, D.C.
SUPREME COURT
No news to report from the high court specific to Trump’s many legal woes, but notably this week, the man who threatened to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, is set to go to trial in the spring. The California man vowed to kill Kavanaugh and himself so it would “give his life purpose.“
CRIMINAL
Nothing new to report in the Jan. 6 election subversion case a week after a classified and redacted one-page brief appeared on the docket signifying that special counsel Jack Smith‘s team may have provided a small amount of classified material for pretrial discovery.
CIVIL
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, the jurist overseeing civil litigation brought against Donald Trump by lawmakers and police who endured the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, has agreed to give the former president and convicted felon more time to obtain records from the Secret Service and Metropolitan Police Department that have been missing in action since June. Tump has until Aug. 29 to update Judge Mehta.
OF NOTE: Should the former president ultimately be found culpable for violating the rights of protesters who say they were unconstitutionally removed from Lafayette Park during the racial justice protests in 2020, the U.S. Justice Department appears to have agreed to assume liability for the former president because he was “acting within the scope of federal office” at the time.
Former President Donald Trump and high-level officials, including Bill Barr, walk in Lafayette Park to visit outside St. John’s Church across from the White House in Washington in June 2020 (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky).
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