Andrew McCarthy: Prepare for Trump to be sentenced to prison on September 18
The objective here is to enable VP Kamala Harris and the media-Democratic complex to label Trump 'a convicted felon sentenced to prison' as voting begins
By Andrew McCarthy Fox News
Published August 14, 2024 12:56pm EDT
To the surprise of no one, Judge Juan Merchan has yet again denied former President Trump’s motion that the judge recuse himself. I am speaking, of course, about the case in which Manhattan’s elected progressive Democratic District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is prosecuting Trump. In early June, a jury found the former president and current GOP presidential nominee guilty on 34 counts of business-records falsification.
It is not just that Judge Merchan had previously denied the recusal motion. The judge has signaled that, come hell or high water, he intends to sentence Trump on Sept. 18.
If you’re keeping score, that would be two days after early voting in the 2024 election begins in Pennsylvania.
The Trump defense team has been trying to stave off sentencing. And the lawyers have what, in a normal case, would be real ammunition.
On July 1, the U.S. Supreme Court held that presidents (including former presidents) are (a) presumptively immune from criminal prosecution for any official acts taken as president, and (b) absolutely immune if the official acts are core constitutional duties of the chief executive. The court instructed that this immunity extends not only to charges but to evidence. That means prosecutors are not just barred from alleging official presidential acts as crimes; they are further prohibited from even using such acts as proof offered to establish other crimes.
The New York prosecution of Trump was politics not justice. That’s why we call it "lawfare." The prosecutors and judge are not concerned about whether convictions ultimately get thrown out on appeal. There is no denying that Bragg’s prosecutors used some of Trump’s official acts to prove their case. Indeed, they called as witnesses two of Trump’s White House staffers.
Unsurprisingly then, Trump’s lawyers moved post-trial to have the guilty verdicts thrown out based on the high court’s immunity ruling. Further, they again argued that Merchan should recuse himself. On that score, they claimed the lucrative political work Merchan’s daughter has done for Vice President Kamala Harris should be seen as more significant now that Harris has replaced President Biden as Trump’s Democratic opponent in the upcoming election.
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https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/andrew-mccarthy-prepare-trump-sentenced-prison-september-18
