Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump’s attorneys should seek a writ of mandamus to prevent Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg from drawing the case out.
Bragg signed a legal filing opposing a motion by Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the case, instead urging New York Judge Juan Merchan to postpone sentencing until 2029, after Trump would leave office. Dershowitz accused Bragg of trying to “freeze” the case for his political gain.
“You can’t unfreeze a case any more than you can unfreeze… a live human, human being. What’s the purpose of freezing the case? It’s so obvious to any lawyer. Now, people who are not lawyers may not understand why Bragg wants the case to be frozen for four years,” Dershowitz said. “While the case is frozen, until there is a sentence, under New York law, Trump can’t appeal. We all know that once Trump appeals, the conviction will be reversed. Ideally, it will be reversed.”
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“There is no crime. You can’t even recite what there is because they tried to turn a misdemeanor into a felony, and it wasn’t even a misdemeanor. It was banned by the statute of limitations,” Dershowitz added. “There’s just no crime, but by putting off the sentencing for four years, actually four years and two months or so, several things can happen. Number one, Trump can’t appeal. So a conviction, jury verdict of guilt for a crime that didn’t exist, hangs over his head for four years, while he’s president. Exactly what Bragg wants, and I suspect it maybe it’ll be what Merchan wants as well.”
A Manhattan jury of seven men and five women convicted Trump on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records May 30 in the case, which centered around a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels as part of a confidentiality agreement. Dershowitz said Trump’s attorneys could prevent the delay.
“Here’s what I recommend the Trump lawyers do, and I will certainly be in touch with the Trump lawyers and tell them to do it and I’ll even help outline how to write the brief if they want my assistance on that: Bring a writ of mandamus,” Dershowitz said. “A writ of mandamus is an extraordinary application to the appellate courts to do something that the district court should have done, but refused to do so.”
Merchan was scheduled to sentence Trump on Nov. 26, but he paused all deadlines Nov. 12.
“So you bring a mandamus to the appellate division, saying: Look, we have a constitutional right to appeal. Judge Merchan, if he does this, is violating our constitutional right to appeal. This is a deliberate ploy, deliberate effort to try to prevent us from appealing because they know we’re gonna win this appeal,” Dershowitz said. “So we don’t care whether you delay the sentence or not. That’s not particularly the point. The point is: Let us appeal. Let us appeal now, with or without a sentence. Let us appeal, and I suspect the court would do one of two things: It would either let them appeal, which would be extraordinary. I’ve never heard of a case like that, but I’ve never heard of a case like this. It would either let them appeal, or it would demand, send it back to the district court judge and, say, sentence him within 30 days.”
“One way or the other, sentence within 30 days, one or the other, the courts will not allow a four-year freeze designed to circumvent the right to an appeal,” Dershowitz added.
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