New York Justice Juan Merchan is faced with a no-win dilemma of whether to let former President Donald Trump's criminal sentencing move ahead on Sept. 18, or delay it further, The New York Times reported.
Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the hush money case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg earlier this year. Prosecutors said Trump concealed records to cover up a hush payment scheme to adult film star Stormy Daniels to improperly influence the 2016 presidential election.
The problem, reported Ben Protess, Jesse McKinley, and William K. Rashbaum, is that "if Justice Merchan postpones his sentencing until after the Nov. 5 election, the American people will vote without knowing whether Mr. Trump will spend time behind bars" — thus validating Trump's monthslong schemes to delay the case, and "feed the very impression the judge has labored to dispel — that the former president is above the law."
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But if he doesn't postpone the sentencing, Trump "will no doubt accuse him of trying to tip the campaign in favor of" Vice President Kamala Harris, and will appeal it anyway, long delaying any actual service of his sentence.
Colleagues in the judicial system who know Merchan, however, tell the paper they have confidence in him, expecting "he would tune out the political noise and issue a reasoned decision." Jill Konviser, a retired judge who has known Merchan, said, “Whatever decision Judge Merchan makes will not only be the right decision, it will be driven by nothing other than that which occurred in the context of this case.”
This comes after Trump made a last-ditch effort to try to get the case removed to federal court, an attempt to lay the groundwork to argue Bragg relied on evidence inadmissible under the Supreme Court's decision that granted presidents a presumption of immunity for official acts.
However, a federal court rejected the motion this week, which Bragg has said means he has a clear field to move ahead with sentencing.
