Donald Trump is doing everything to remove a "scarlet letter off of his chest," but it looks like he'll be unsuccessful, a legal expert said.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance raised the subject in a Substack post dated Wednesday, saying that the President-elect is trying to avoid being permanently labeled as being a convicted felon. In that effort, Trump has tried to stay an upcoming sentencing, but has had no luck.
According to Vance, Trump "doesn’t want to be sentenced on Friday for his fraud convictions over the payment of hush money to Stormy Daniels."
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"It’s not the sentence that’s the big issue—the Judge has already said he doesn’t intend to impose custody, Trump wants to find a way to keep the conviction from becoming final and irreversible," according to the ex-prosecutor. "He wants to get the scarlet letter off of his chest."
Preventing the sentencing hearing from happening matters, she said, "because it will trigger the appellate process."
"If he’s sentenced, Trump will have 30 days from that date to take an appeal. Once the appeal is concluded, the conviction is final," Vance added on Wednesday. "Trump is hoping to delay sentencing so that process won’t kick in, giving him four years to come up with a strategy, while he holds the levers of power, for avoiding the permanent designation: convicted felon."
Trump's request was rejected by Judge Juan Merchan, as well as by an appeals court.
"Trump argued that pre-presidential and I’m-almost-president immunity mean he can’t be sentenced. But there is no law—not in the Constitution, statutes, or judge-made—that establishes either theory. It’s a doctrine made out of whole cloth by Trump’s lawyers," Vance wrote. "Trump’s argument is pretty much, 'you can’t sentence me because I said so.'"
Vance added that Trump's last hope is if he "can find an appellate judge in state of federal court who will help him delay the proceedings."
"Once he’s sentenced, it’s unlikely he’ll be able to short circuit appellate proceedings. The reasons offered for rejecting criminal prosecutions of presidents are to avoid distracting them from their duties and to avoid reputational damage to the leader of the free world," she said. "While they may apply during the trial phase of proceedings, they lack similar force during an appeal, and it’s likely the New York courts will permit the case to proceed."
