The headline reads like a punch to the gut: Judge Juan Merchan announced President-elect Donald J. Trump will be sentenced on January 10. It will be before the inauguration. The bad news is that this guy won’t let it go despite the overt political circus surrounding this case. The good news is that Judge Merchan already said that no jail time will be issued (via WaPo):
NEW YORK (AP) — Judge orders Donald Trump to appear for sentencing in the hush money case on Jan. 10, 2025.
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) January 3, 2025
CNN Senior Legal Analyst Describes How The Trump Conviction Was A Political Hit Job
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) January 3, 2025
1. "The judge donated money... in plain violation of a rule prohibiting New York judges from making political donations—to a pro-Biden, anti-Trump political operation."
2. Alvin Bragg… https://t.co/PZV5x3EcaB pic.twitter.com/OMdEEbrcMX
The decision to schedule the sentencing Jan. 10 almost certainly means Trump will be the first felon to serve as a U.S. president.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote in his ruling that he does not intend to sentence Trump to jail.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to an adult-film star ahead of the 2016 election. He faces up to four years in prison, but many experts said incarceration is unlikely because of his age and his lack of prior convictions.
Since Trump’s victory at the polls in November, his lawyers have argued that anything short of dismissing the case would violate laws that protect the transition process and grant immunity from prosecution to sitting presidents.
NEW: Alvin Bragg's former colleague and current CNN legal analyst is calling out the rigged Trump case, even accusing Judge Juan Merchan of violating the law.
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 1, 2024
Elie Honig says the trial "blew his mind" as he called it an "unjustified mess."
"The judge donated money - a… pic.twitter.com/nCUhMRutxe
This article by Elie Honig, the CNN legal commentator who followed every twist and turn of the Trump Trial, and formerly worked with Alvin Bragg in the Manhattan DA's office, is totally devastating as to the due process violations of this prosecution -- particularly this stunner: pic.twitter.com/PPsuLQMIlD
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) May 31, 2024
This case was a total disaster, where even CNN's Elie Honig, the network's chief legal analyst, couldn't defend it, calling it an "unjustified mess" and an affront of due process. We'll see what happens, but these anti-Trumpers can't be trusted.
“While this Court as a matter of law must not make any determination on sentencing prior to giving the parties and Defendants opportunity to be heard, it seems proper at this juncture to make known the Court’s inclination to not impose any sentence of incarceration, a sentence…
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) January 3, 2025
Do not trust this, at all. https://t.co/yv7wYw1Quu
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) January 3, 2025