Free Republic

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced Friday morning in his New York hush money case after a jury in May convicted him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. Judge Juan Merchan sentenced Trump to an "unconditional discharge" -- allowing Trump to avoid prison, fines or probation -- out of respect for the principle of presidential immunity, which takes effect on Jan. 20 once Trump becomes president.

President Trump went off on far-left judge Juan Merchan on Sunday night ahead of his sentencing in Alvin Bragg’s lawfare ‘hush money’ case. Trump will be sentenced in Alvin Bragg’s lawfare hush money case on January 10 before his inauguration. “This court finds that neither the vacatur of the jury’s verdicts nor dismissal of the indictment are required by the Presidential immunity doctrine, the Presidential Transition Act or the Supremacy Clause,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote last Friday. ..... Snip..... President Trump blasted Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, Judge Merchan and Biden’s DOJ ahead of his sentencing. “D.A. Alvin Bragg never wanted...

President-elect Trump raged Saturday against the Manhattan judge who oversaw his criminal trial, calling the jurist “corrupt” in a Truth Social post. “I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent,” Trump began in a post first targeting Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan. “A legal expense was called, on the books, a legal expense. There was nothing else it could have been called. This was the so-called falsifying of records. I was hiding nothing, everything...

John Solomon @jsolomonReports Breaking: Trump fumes over judge's 'psychotic' rejection of immunity claims in DA Bragg case From justthenews.com 11:38 AM · Dec 17, 2024

New York judge Juan Merchan, who just denied another motion against President-elect Trump may be an extreme political ideologue, but like all judges, he works for a government institution. He takes orders and follows directions. Former federal appellate judge Richard Posner, appointed by Ronald Reagan, wrote a book called “How Judges Think”. Unfortunately, it should have been called “How Judges Behave”, because the job of judging really doesn’t rest on thinking; it rests on issuing a ruling, and more times than not, these rulings are wrong in law, and are also not subject to written explanations. They’re often just fiat....

The New York judge in President-elect Donald Trump's criminal hush money case ruled Monday that the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision does not apply to that case. Trump had sought to dismiss his criminal indictment and vacate the jury verdict on the grounds that prosecutors, during the trial last May, introduced evidence relating to Trump's official acts as president, after the Supreme Court later ruled in July that Trump is entitled to presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office...... In his ruling Monday, Merchan found that there was "overwhelming evidence of guilt" that led the...

John Solomon @jsolomonReports Breaking: Judge rejects Trump bid to toss DA Bragg conviction over SCOTUS immunity ruling From justthenews.com 5:53 PM · Dec 16, 2024

The Manhattan judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s hush-money criminal trial is expected to announce next week if the now-president-elect’s historic felony conviction will still stand. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan had already delayed sentencing by more than four months to come after the election — and gave himself until next Tuesday to decide if the conviction should be tossed. Trump’s overwhelming election win will now further embolden his legal team “to make sure that sentencing never happens,” CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid noted late Wednesday. “Here, they’re going to argue to the judge that the sentencing should...

A New York appeals court rejected on Thursday former President Donald Trump’s effort to lift the remainder of his gag order. Trump sought to have the order lifted after he was convicted in May on 34 counts for falsifying business records. Judge Juan Merchan partially lifted the order in June but left in place key restrictions, including one that prevents Trump from criticizing prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. The court agreed that the end of the trial did not constitute “a change in circumstances” that warranted terminating the order, noting that the “fair administration of justice necessarily...