Criminal defense attorney Bill Brennan said on Friday that signs point to Judge Juan Merchan postponing former President Donald Trump’s Sept. 18 sentencing date.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg recently declined to take a stance on Trump’s request to delay his sentencing date until after the November election. Brennan, who previously represented Trump, said on “CNN News Central” that Bragg’s lack of opposition to Trump’s request, along with Merchan’s language in an order delaying the original July 11 sentencing, suggests the Sept. 18 date will not be upheld.
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“I don’t think that he’ll be sentenced on the 18th for a couple of reasons,” Brennan told host Boris Sanchez. “The Manhattan district attorney’s office apparently has indicated that they would not be opposed to a continuance until a date after the presidential election and I understand that the former president’s attorneys have filed a motion to remove the case to federal court.”
“And whether or not that happens I can’t predict, but it seems to me, if you take the order that Judge Merchan signed in July continuing the sentencing until September, and in that order, I believe he used verbiage akin to ‘the sentencing, if necessary, will occur in September,’” he added. “If you take that combined with the Bragg office directive that they’re not opposed to continuing it. I think the tea leaves would point to a continuance.”
Trump’s attorneys on Thursday filed a motion to move the New York business records case to federal court and postpone the sentencing date based in part on the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling. The Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for “official acts” taken in office.
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“Well, that decision, Boris was really wide ranging, very sweeping. It gave presidents almost blanket immunity. Certainly, they have complete immunity for anything they do in their official capacity,” Brennan said. “They have presumptive immunity for any other official acts … it’d be a very unusual move to move the case to federal court, but that Supreme Court decision is a very unusual decision, so it could happen. I don’t think it will, but it could.”
A Manhattan jury in May convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business documents related to reimbursing his former attorney Michael Cohen for a nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels.
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CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig on Thursday said he believes Trump’s sentencing may not occur until long after the November election as Merchan could either dismiss the conviction or uphold it while enabling the former president to appeal before sentencing, thereby delaying the sentencing.
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