The New York court that has to sentence in the case of the porn actress Stormy Daniels, for which former president and now candidate Donald Trump was convicted on 14 charges, has once again accepted the appeal filed by the billionaire's lawyers to delay the sentence until after the November elections.
Trump was convicted by a jury on May 30, and the case was pending sentencing. But the controversial decision of the US Supreme Court this July, which, at the request of the former president, ruled that the occupant of the White House has immunity for all his official acts, changed everything.
The defense attorneys then requested the case to be dismissed, but Judge Juan Merchanonly postponed his decision on the sentence until September 16. However, he has now listened and complied with Trump's appeal, and there will be no final sentence, which could include prison terms, until November 26.
In the first criminal trial of a US president or former president, Trump was convicted on May 30 for falsifying all kinds of documents and records of his companies to cover up the $130,000 payment made by his then lawyer and chief advisor to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence, just before the 2016 elections, about a past sexual encounter between them. Trump ended up winning the elections, but later the conspiracy case to deny and conceal the payment came to light.
New York prosecutors have insisted that their case involved Trump's personal conduct, not "official acts," so there was no reason to overturn the verdict. But not taking a position on the exact date of the sentence, leaving it all in the hands of the judge.
Legal analysts believe that Merchan has been particularly sensitive, or succumbed to pressure, due to the enormous political significance of the case. Before the elections, it would undoubtedly have an effect on the vote, and given the doubts about the exact scope of the Supreme Court's decision, but also considering the possibility that the Department of Justice could fall back into Republican hands in the coming months, Merchan has opted for caution.
Some courts immediately dismissed other pending cases of the former president in July, considering that this new immunity doctrine covered him. But that did not happen with the main case for his maneuvers to not accept the results of the 2020 elections and attempts to reverse them, including the Capitol riot.
Special prosecutor Jack Smith has rewritten the lawsuit, leaving out elements that would not have succeeded with this new doctrine, and after convening what is known here as a new Grand Jury, he keeps the case open that could have greater consequences for Trump. Again, only if he does not win the elections and the new Department of Justice does not order the prosecutors to drop it.
Ironically, this Friday the former president attended a hearing in another federal court, the appeals court in New York, trying to overturn the five million dollar conviction that found him guilty of sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump, who still maintains that he did nothing wrong, that it was all an invention of the writer, and that he is the victim for "being famous and rich," has also lashed out at his legal team, all present at his press statements, saying he was very "disappointed with them."