This Tuesday, prosecutors handling the case against Trump for falsifying payment to actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence presented documents outlining how the process should continue after the mogul wins the election. The presentation also coincides with the new date set by Merchan to rule on presidential immunity.
For now, New York prosecutors have said they will oppose any attempt to overturn President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction because his sentencing is imminent, but they are willing to delay the case until ‘at the end of his second term.
Initially, Merchan had set November 12 as the deadline to rule on presidential immunity. But when the scheduled day arrived, the judge announced that he was postponing the date again until this Tuesday the 19th.
In September, the judge had already announced that he was also postponing the sentence in the Stormy Daniels case until after the November 5 elections and had set November 26 as the new date. The decision, as explained in the document presented, responded to the desire not to influence the possible outcome of the elections. Throughout the process, Trump used the trial to show himself as the victim of alleged political persecution.
In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the president enjoys immunity for “official acts” but not for those of a private nature, leaving it to other courts to decide where the official ends and the private begins. The conclusion reached by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, six votes for and three against progressive justices, concerned Trump’s federal case for the attempted storming of the Capitol on January 6, even if it has an impact on all. the causes that the now president-elect keeps open.
Most of the crimes Trump was convicted of in the Stormy Daniels case took place before he became president. The mogul was still a private citizen when his lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, made the payment to the porn actress in exchange for her silence to avoid a scandal in the middle of the 2016 election campaign. Trump wanted to prevent this from becoming known . In the past, he had sex with the actress while he was already married to Melania, out of fear of the impact it could have on the polls.
Instead, Trump was already president when he repaid the money Cohen had originally put out of his own pocket to pay Daniels. The payment was recorded as a “legal fee,” which is a violation of election finance law and one of the crimes for which the Republican was convicted. The penalty for falsifying documents is up to four years in prison in New York.
