The judicial column, which seemed to take second place in the American presidential campaign, was back in the news on Friday, September 6. Four days before the televised debate against Kamala Harris, Donald Trump received excellent news: in New York, Judge Juan Merchán decided to postpone the announcement of the sentence against the former president.
Initially scheduled for September 18, the decision will not be made until November 26, several weeks after the election. American citizens will therefore not know, when they go to the polls, whether Donald Trump will be sentenced to prison, a suspended sentence or house arrest, which are some of the options available to him.
This long-awaited decision follows the guilty verdict upheld by the jury against Donald Trump during his criminal trial for falsifying accounting documents. He was accused of having organised a system of secret payments during his victorious 2015-2016 campaign to avoid unflattering revelations about his extramarital affairs, in particular with former porn actress Stormy Daniels.
The verdict was originally due to be handed down on July 11, just before the opening of the Republican convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But the Supreme Court’s decision on July 1 on Donald Trump’s request for total presidential immunity – which partly met his expectations – raised questions about the scope of all the cases being investigated or tried. Donald Trump is still accused in three cases, including two federal ones. Juan Merchán therefore considered it prudent to wait until the appeals were exhausted, postponing the announcement of the verdict until September 18. On July 14, the Republican candidate’s lawyers asked for a much longer postponement. Shortly afterwards, to everyone’s surprise, the office of New York prosecutor Alvin Bragg did not object to this attitude during an election period.
“Unique circumstances”
In his decision, Judge Merchán wrote on Friday that he wanted to avoid “any appearance, however unjustified, that the procedure has been affected or is intended to affect the next presidential elections,” in which Donald Trump is participating. Stressing that such postponements are “granted periodically, sometimes several times”The magistrate emphasizes “the unique facts and circumstances of this case”which should not prevent Donald Trump from being treated with the same consideration as any other litigant.
You have 52.75% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
