Judge sets Trump’s sentencing in money laundering case for Jan. 10, but signals no jail time
A judge on Friday scheduled US President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his embezzlement case for Jan. 10 – just over a week before he is due to return to the White House – but indicated he will not be jailed.
Still, the development leaves Trump on track to become the first president to take office convicted of a felony.
Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial, signaled in a written decision that he would sentence the former and future president to what is known as parole, in which the case is dismissed if the defendant avoids rearrest.
Merchan rejected pressure from Trump to throw out the verdict and dismiss the case because of presidential immunity and because of his imminent return to the White House. The judge said he found “no legal bar to sentencing” Trump and that it was his “duty” to sentence Trump before his January 20 swearing-in.
“Only by bringing finality to this matter” will the interests of justice be served, Merchan wrote.
The development marks another twist in the individual case.
Jury denounced Trump in May of 34 counts of falsifying business documents in connection with the payment of US$130,000 in secret money to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
The allegations included a scheme to hide payments to Daniels during the final days of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to prevent her from going public with her allegation of sexual contact with a then-married businessman years earlier. He says that nothing sexual happened between them.
The judge postponed the sentencing indefinitely
After Trump’s election on Nov. 5, Merchan halted the proceedings and postponed sentencing indefinitely so the defense and prosecution could decide the future of the case.
Trump’s lawyers urged Merchan to recuse himself. They said it would otherwise cause unconstitutional “disruption” in the future president’s ability to govern the country.
Prosecutors conceded there should be some consent for his incoming presidency, but insisted the ruling should stand.
They proposed various options, such as freezing the case during his term or bailing him out without jail time. They also proposed closing the case with a formal record of both his convictions and his pending appeals — an idea drawn from what some state courts do when criminal defendants die while appealing their cases.
Trump takes office on January 20 as the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted felon to be elected to office.
With his conviction, the 78-year-old faces the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or suspended sentence to four years in prison.
Trump condemned the verdict as “rigged”
Trump, a Republican, denounced the verdict as a “rigged, disgraceful” result of a “witch hunt” by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat.
Before Trump’s election in November, his lawyers sought to overturn his conviction on another ground: a July U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad immunity from prosecution. That request was still pending when the elections opened up new questions.
Former US President Donald Trump was found guilty in a New York embezzlement trial. CBC’s Anya Zoledziowski breaks down the key evidence and witnesses that led the jury to the historic conviction.
While urging Merchan to overturn the conviction, Trump also sought to move the case to federal court, where he could also seek immunity. A federal judge repeatedly said no, but Trump appealed.
The hush money case was the only one of Trump’s four indictments to go to trial.
Since the election, special prosecutor Jack Smith has closed his two federal cases. One was about Trump’s efforts to reverse his 2020 election defeat; another claimed he was hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
A separate case of meddling in state-level elections in Georgia is largely pending.
