NEW YORK: Prosecutors proposed to a New York judge that Donald Trump could escape prison time following his conviction on charges of paying support money to a porn star to keep her quiet, considering his recent election victory United States presidential elections. However, they remain opposed to dismissing the case.
In a court filing made public Tuesday, prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office urged Judge Juan Merchán to deny the Republican businessman-turned-politician's request to dismiss the case so it doesn't loom over him. and impede their ability to govern. once he takes office on January 20.
Noting that many of Trump's concerns involve the possibility that he could be imprisoned, prosecutors noted that Merchan does not need to sentence him to prison, and said the judge could conclude that presidential immunity would require a non-incarceration sentence.
“Such a constitutional limitation on the range of available sentences would further diminish any impact on the defendant's presidential decision-making without going so far as to rule out the indictment and jury verdict entirely,” prosecutors wrote.
Merchan has not said when he will rule on Trump's attempted firing.
Trump has called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to damage his 2024 campaign. In a statement Tuesday, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said: “Today's filing by the Manhattan District Attorney “It is a pathetic attempt to salvage the remains of an unconstitutional and politically motivated hoax.”
The case arose from a $130,000 payment that Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had a decade earlier with Trump. , who denies it.
In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up his repayment to Cohen. It was the first time that a former or sitting United States president had been convicted or charged with a criminal offense.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, but jail time is not required. Before his Nov. 5 election victory, legal experts told Reuters that Trump was unlikely to be sentenced to prison due to his lack of criminal record and advanced age, but that incarceration was not impossible.
In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a separate criminal case involving Trump that presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken in office, and that evidence of official acts cannot be used to prosecute a president for personal acts.
Trump's lawyers have argued that meant the case should be dismissed because prosecutors used statements Trump made when he was president and testimony from his White House aides. The filing by Bragg's office Tuesday said the hush money case involved “purely unofficial conduct.”
“Presidential immunity is supposed to protect a president's official decision-making only while he is in office, not to forever insulate the president from criminal liability, especially for his unofficial conduct,” prosecutors wrote.
Last month, Merchan indefinitely delayed Trump's sentencing previously scheduled for Nov. 26 to give him the opportunity to seek impeachment.
In their filing, prosecutors repeated their suggestion that Merchan delay all proceedings – including sentencing – until Trump leaves the White House in January 2029. Alternatively, they said a non-incarceration sentence could minimize the case's impact on the presidency. of Trump.
In their motion to dismiss, Trump's lawyers called the idea that sentencing could be delayed until after he leaves office “ridiculous.”
Prosecutors wrote that while Trump should receive “temporary accommodations” to ensure the case does not interfere with his presidency, overturning the jury's verdict would represent an “extreme remedy.”
“The immunity of the president-elect does not exist,” they wrote. “The overwhelming evidence of the defendant's guilt and the critical importance of preserving public confidence in the criminal justice system, among many other factors, weigh heavily against dismissal.”
Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023, one related to classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump's election victory.
