In this courtroom sketch, former U.S. president Donald Trump appears by video conferencing before Judge Juan Merchan during a hearing before his trial over charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan state court in New York City, May 23, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Prosecutors on Tuesday are set to tell a judge whether they think the criminal hush money case against President-elect Donald Trump should head to sentencing, as planned, or be dismissed following his electoral victory, as his lawyers have requested.
The New York case is one of four criminal prosecutions against Trump whose fate is up in the air — or all but doomed — because of the Republican’s electoral win two weeks ago against Vice President Kamala Harris
Trump was convicted in May in Manhattan Supreme Court of 34 felony charges of falsifying business records.
Those records related to a $130,000 payment his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen made shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about a purported one-time sexual tryst with Trump a decade earlier.
Judge Juan Merchan had been expected to rule on a dismissal request by Trump’s lawyers on Nov. 12 at the earliest. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had opposed that request.
But on the heels of Trump’s election win, the DA’s office told Merchan they wanted him to delay his ruling, to give them time to determine how that victory affected the case.
Merchan gave them one week to do so.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump leaves the courthouse after a jury found him guilty of all 34 felony counts in his criminal trial at New York State Supreme Court on May 30, 2024.
Justin Lane | Via Reuters
Before the ordered pause, Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26. If the case is not dismissed, and Trump is sentenced, he is not expected to serve any potential jail sentence until after he leaves the White House more than four years from now.
Two criminal cases against Trump in federal court are expected to be dismissed before he enters the White House, or shortly afterward. Trump has the power to order his attorney general to toss out those cases. The Department of Justice, which the AG leads, also has a policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.
In one of those cases, Trump is charged in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., with crimes related to his effort to undo his 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden.
The judge there was considering the effect of the July ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on that case before special counsel Jack Smith asked her, after Trump’s election, to pause all proceedings for now.
Smith also asked a federal appeals court in Atlanta to pause proceedings in his attempt to reverse the dismissal by Florida federal district court Judge Aileen Cannon of charges against Trump related to his retention of classified government records after leaving the White House. The appeals court granted that delay, which, like the one in Washington, was seen as a precursor to the DOJ dropping the case altogether.
In a fourth criminal case, in Atlanta state court, Trump and more than a dozen co-defendants are charged with crimes in connection with their attempt to reverse his 2020 defeat by Biden in Georgia.
Trump and some of the other defendants are appealing the trial court’s decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case despite having had a romantic relationship with a top prosecutor she assigned to the matter.
On Monday, the Georgia Court of Appeals, without explanation, canceled oral arguments until further notice in Trump’s appeal, which had been scheduled for Dec. 5.