Suddenly, courts and prosecutors have a lot less interest in lawfare than, oh, 15 days ago. The Georgia Court of Appeals put Fani Willis’ case on ice yesterday, without any explanation. Now Alvin Bragg’s office has recommended that the Manhattan court do the same while it ponders the meaning of 76 million Americans voting Trump back into office:
New York prosecutors told the judge who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Tuesday that his sentencing should be postponed while the president-elect’s lawyers file further legal arguments asking the case be dismissed.
The proposal Tuesday from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office would need to be signed off on by Judge Juan Merchan to become official. Merchan has agreed to previous requests from prosecutors seeking delays.
Merchan has already agreed to a short stay on sentencing while Bragg and his team try to consider their next steps. That stay expired today, and was supposed to give Bragg’s office time to reach actual decisions. Earlier, an erroneous Bloomberg report led people to think that Merchan had already canceled the sentencing schedules for a week from today. That error got corrected, although it might prove prescient in the end today.
Still, this request seems like another case of can-kicking, and it’s not clear yet whether Merchan will allow it. He already has motions from Trump’s legal team to set aside the verdict in the wake of the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling. Merchan may not wait for Bragg’s office to get its collective effluvium together, although there’s no rush yet on any of these determinations.
ABC News adds that Bragg’s office still opposes a dismissal of the conviction. That position could change too, but it could also convince Merchan to act on the dismissal motion now if he is inclined to grant it.
I’ll have updates on this as developments warrant.
