The entire political world got turned on its ear after the Trump presidential immunity ruling by the Supreme Court.
Even though it is not likely to impact the outcome of the case, Judge Merchan still decided to delay the hush-money case sentencing until well after the Republican National Convention.
Talking Points…
- Political warfare
- Delaying the sentence
- Analysis
There are more than a few people, including some members of Congress, who believe these cases against Trump are nothing more than an effort by the Department of Justice and Democrats to take Trump out of the presidential race. If that was their plan, it has backfired big league.
The one aspect of the cases that I think it was hard to argue that was calculated was the sentencing date that had been set by Judge Merchan in the hush-money case. Rather than wait until after the Republican National Convention, where Donald Trump will be certified as the Republican nominee, Merchan had initially scheduled the hearing for July 11, just four days before the convention started.
This could have crippled Trump if Merchan had decided to send Trump to jail or house arrest. Trump would not have missed the convention, but he would have been removed from the campaign trail for the stretch drive of the campaign. The presidential immunity ruling, however, has seemingly had a trickledown effect, with Merchan and prosecutors agreeing to delay the sentencing.
I do not believe the immunity ruling is relevant in the hush-money case, but Merchan and prosecutors appear to be playing this a bit more cautiously now. With all of Trump's cases now in a holding pattern, Merchan finally honored a motion by Trump's defense team.
Trump's team had requested that Merchan delay the sentencing until September, presumably so they could start the appeals process and allow that to play out before any sentence is announced. Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg did not push back against the sentencing delay, so Merchan did agree that sentencing will now take place on September 18.
Merchan issued a letter to both Trump's defense team and prosecuting attorneys, which stated:
"The July 11, 2024, sentencing date is therefore vacated. The Court's decision will be rendered off-calendar on September 6, 2024, and the matter is adjourned to September 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM for the imposition of sentence, if such is still necessary, or other proceedings."
As briefly mentioned above, Donald Trump's defense team is already making moves regarding the verdict. They had already announced their plan to appeal the decision, but based on the Supreme Court's presidential immunity ruling, they have first filed a motion to set the verdict aside.
Trump's motion to have the hush-money verdict set aside due to the presidential immunity ruling will not be successful. This just seems like another ploy by Trump's defense team to delay the case as long as possible and buy more time for Trump before the election. If that was their plan, it worked in terms of having the sentencing delayed.
The decision is not relevant in this case because the hush-money payment was made before Trump had even become president. Even if it had happened after Trump took office, this was clearly not the act of a president, but that of a private citizen in a personal matter, so presidential immunity would not be relevant regardless.
While the ruling will not help Trump in that case, it could influence the Georgia case as well as the classified documents case, but again, that will depend on how the court perceives the actions taken by Trump and whether they are deemed to be official presidential acts of those of a private citizen. The Georgia case is a coin flip, but I believe the court will not allow Trump to have immunity in the classified documents case, at least in the lower courts. Expect all these cases to be significantly extended while all this plays out.
