By Irene Anastasiadis
Boston University News Service
Judge Juan Merchan, acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court, recently ruled to postpone President-elect Trump’s sentencing scheduled for Nov. 26.
In addition to the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity earlier this year, Trump’s recent election win complicates his criminal case in New York.
The case involves Trump’s conviction in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 hush money payment. Trump’s legal team argues the sentence should be overturned, citing presidential immunity, while prosecutors seek to uphold the verdict.
Merchan has given the defense until Dec. 2 to file a motion to dismiss, and the prosecution has until Dec. 9 to respond. It is unclear what will happen in Trump’s case, however, the possibility of Trump spending time behind bars is more unlikely now.
Judge Merchan could likely dismiss the verdict by granting Trump’s immunity claim based on the recent Supreme Court ruling granting the former president broad immunity.
Jed Shugerman, a Boston University law professor, said Merchan made the right call to delay sentencing.
“It was such a weak case on the law in terms of stretching state law to essentially bring federal charges. That was an abuse of prosecutorial power by the Manhattan DA,” Shugerman said.
A press release from the Judiciary Committee briefly summarized a report by the House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about the infringement upon Trump’s legal and constitutional rights.
According to the report, both New York’s Judge Merchan and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had flawed rulings and legal practices.
“Given that President Trump’s indictment was conceived in legal and constitutional error and the trial exacerbated and compounded those errors, an honest review of the facts and the law will likely lead appellate courts to vacate the conviction and dismiss the indictment with prejudice,” according to the Judiciary Committee’s July 2024 press release.
Shugerman said he wasn’t surprised by Merchan’s ruling to postpone. He said most people expected the judge to find a procedural way to defer sentencing if Trump won the election.
Including this case, there are currently four criminal cases against Trump — with only one reaching a verdict thus far.
Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a motion to dismiss Trump’s federal election interference case, and the federal judge proceeded to grant the motion.
As the defense files for dismissal this week, Shugerman said that the Manhattan DA’s office could do what Smith did, “which is move that the prosecution be essentially suspended.” He said home confinement and jail are unlikely possibilities, even after Trump’s term ends.
“If the judge does anything less than defer sentencing until after President Trump’s term, then that would increase the chances that Trump lawyers would appeal the jury’s conviction on legal grounds to overturn the conviction entirely,” Shugerman said.
There’s a valuable lesson for everybody, Shugerman said: to make sure “we use the law even handedly, and not just driven by political goals or political ideologies.”
Shugerman said that because various prosecutions were able to investigate these matters, politics has proven to be more powerful than the law. If it had been simply up to the legal system, Shugerman said, the federal and Georgia prosecutions would have otherwise moved forward.
If Judge Merchan proceeds with sentencing Trump, any punishment might be adjusted to avoid interfering with Trump’s presidential responsibilities.
A new sentencing date has not been set.
UPDATE (12/4): As expected, Trump’s lawyers asked to dismiss the case on Dec. 3. It’s now up to the prosecutors to respond.
