The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump’s criminal case in Manhattan postponed his sentencing until after Election Day, a significant victory for the former president as he seeks to overturn his conviction and win back the White House.
In a ruling on Friday, the judge, Juan M. Merchan, rescheduled the sentencing for Nov. 26. He had previously planned to hand down Mr. Trump’s punishment on Sept. 18, just seven weeks before Election Day, when Mr. Trump will face off against Vice President Kamala Harris for the presidency.
While the decision will avert a courtroom spectacle in the campaign’s final stretch, the delay itself could still affect the election, keeping voters in the dark about whether the Republican presidential nominee will eventually spend time behind bars.
“This is not a decision this court makes lightly but it is the decision which in this court’s view, best advances the interests of justice…"
Doubt.
How to advance justice: Delay it.
“Justice delayed is justice guaranteed” as they say.
If he’s already been convicted, what’s the hold up? Like I’m sure yea there’s something we don’t know but normally I get the waiting for them wanting to build a strong body of evidence during the trial, not after a conviction.
interests of DJT
Pathetic. A true insult to every normal person in this country. None of us would ever get this treatment, we’d be thrown in fucking jail.
Fuck this “justice system” the united states has.
Seriously, imagine what would happen if he does win the election, and then gets sentences to prison. The magats will flip a shit and say the sitting President is doing it… which will only end in blood.
Fuck this noise. His ass should be in a holding pen awaiting his sentencing. Then maybe he’d want to do it a little sooner. Unfortunately, we continue to keep handling him with the softest, fluffiest, Downy fresh kid gloves.
Rich people are immune to consequences.
The Crown Prosecution Service just dropped outstanding charges against Harvey Weinstein this week. He’s currently awaiting retrial in NYC, after courts granted him a new opportunity to reverse the 16 year sentence against him. And this was a guy with over 100 sexual assault charges pending, at one point. Very good chance he gets out again soon.
There’s a zero percent chance Trump actually sees the inside of a cell. Or Giuliani, for that matter. The courts don’t want to prosecute these guys. The jails don’t want to hold them. Nobody in power wants anything to do with these social elites. They’re untouchable in a way John Gotti (former friend and associate of Mr. Trump) could only dream of.
It doesn’t keep the voters in the dark about anything. It further cements the fact that nobody with any power to do so is willing to actually hold Trump accountable for the many crimes he has committed. It has been 4 fucking years since he has been president and 8 fucking years since this specific crime was committed. They should have sentenced him immediately after conviction like any normal convicted criminal. I guarantee if he gets elected he won’t get sentenced, so why postpone sentencing?
It is actually normal for sentencing to take a while after conviction.
Everyone going “This is for the best, that way he can’t easily appeal” are on lethal doses of copium. This man is never going to see the inside of a prison.
I’m rooting for a blood clot, embolism or aneurysm instead.
Fuck him, he doesn’t deserve a quick way out.
He doesn’t, but how much time would you spend futilely trying to torment the tapeworm inside your intestines before simply swallowing the vermicide and be done with it?
He doesn’t, but we do deserve to have him gone in an instant.
What if you could have that and him in prison too?
Not exactly related to this article but, I looked this judge up on Ballotpedia, and found this funny little tidbit.
Judge Merchan handed the Trump Organization a $1.6M fine in that tax case a couple years ago. The District Attorney for Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, said:
“While corporations can’t serve jail time, this consequential conviction and sentencing serves as a reminder to corporations and executives that you cannot defraud tax authorities and get away with it.”
What a head of cabbage. As if a couple million dollars is anything to these corporations. These fines need to be double digit percentages of revenue before they get viewed as anything other than a line item on the expense report.
It’s a shame this man’s right to a speedy trial are being subverted here.
Defendants can always waive that right.
You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.
removed-ass move.
Agreed. Fucking cowards.
This entire process is so demoralizing watching a billionaire dodge justice.
He’s not a billionaire, unless you count all his debts.
Fair. Ex-billionaire :)
Still treating the orange pervert with kid gloves it looks like.
I’m looking at it the other way. He’d probably use it to fundraise and rally his base. Better to delay so he can’t juice it.
His “tough guy” face is truly hilarious. He did it in his mug shot, too. He’s trying sooo fucking hard.
I just assumed he was shitting his pants.
Identical to my toddlers pooping face
I thought he was constipated.
The intent here is probably to avoid MAGA riots before the election.
That’s not a very good reason or justification to delay.
If that worries the justice system, then Trump can never be sentenced. He has cult followers for life.
I believe it is a good enough reason to delay sentencing.
Am I happy with it? Ofc not. But I do understand that nobody wants the orange’s followers rioting and murdering people in the run-up to the election.
Let the election happen and then all the focus can be on his sentencing (25+ years is my wish).
Why wait until 2 weeks after election? Just to be sure to not give jail time if he wins?
I’m fucking tired of this two tiered justice system.
Government capitulation to threats or concerns of a violent mob, is always bad idea. It only serves to embolden the mob.
This is, in fact, avoiding the threats and violent mob. And that is not always a bad thing.
Have you never walked away from a confrontation because the cost wasn’t worth it?
Individuals aren’t governments. The best choice is almost always quite different for the two.
So, in other words, the courts are bowing to terrorists. Great precedent.
My bet would be that it’s to avoid influencing the election rather than riots.
Whichever sentence he gives, it has the potential to make him more likely to win, thereby undermining the sentence.
Personally, I’d like to see justice happen in a way that can be blind to that outside context, but we don’t live in that world.
I don’t like it, but I get it.
it’s to avoid influencing the election
He’s already been found guilty and nobody seems to care one way or the other. What’s sentencing going to change?
A prison sentence looks way more like political suppression than just “guilty but still speaking publicly”.
Still don’t think it was the right thing to do, but I can see why a judge who has otherwise seemed same and nonpartisan would be inclined to make that choice.
A prison sentence looks way more like political suppression
He’s not getting a prison sentence. The judge in the trial straight up stated he did not want to put Trump in prison during the trial. He’ll get a fine, which he’ll be able to pay off with kickbacks from his friends, and the it’ll be back to business as usual.
I can see why a judge who has otherwise seemed same and nonpartisan
The judge is anything but nonpartisan. He’s very obviously conscious of what his career is going to look like under either administration, and he’s playing very carefully so as not to overly offend either party leadership.
I’m unaware of anything the judge has done that strikes me as particularly partisan.
“Not offending either party” is definitely not a partisan act. It’s almost the definition of nonpartisan.
I can’t fault him overmuch for granting the schedule change, since reading the letter from the prosecution regarding it they do seem to be effectively agreeing that it should be moved. If the defense requests a scheduling change, and the prosecution doesn’t object and makes some points about why it might be a good idea so as to “assist the court”, it’s pretty hard for a judge to deny the request.
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25050972/2024-08-16-peoples-response-filed.pdf https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25100931/people-v-djt-letter-adjournment-dec-9-6-24.pdf
Do you have a citation for him saying that he didn’t want to send him to jail? I feel like I would have heard something like that and the searches don’t turn up anything particularly relevant.
If we had done this earlier, this wouldn’t be a concern :/
Yup. :/
I looked it up and it’s not unusual for sentencing in New York to take several months, but I would have been much happier if the political realities had pushed things to move faster.
Having read the prosecutions response to the request for delay that basically said “everything the defense said justifying a delay was wrong, here’s why a delay would actually be a good idea”, it feels hard to blame the judge too much for granting the delay.
Even though none of the reasons seem to be based on sound legal principles and are at best based on practical considerations.
“Don’t punish political candidates like normal people” is a shitty reason to avoid justice.
Well, I don’t think anyone was saying don’t punish political candidates, least of all me.
Being cognizant of a political context for an action just doesn’t seem unreasonable to me, even if it’s not how I think it should have played out.
Whatever sentence is given will have an impact on the political landscape in which that sentence is carried out, which can potentially directly undermine the sentence.
A few years back, I would have said that they are trying to uphold the image of democracy. “Vote for Harris, a guy you’ve never heard of or this criminal, your choice” isn’t a good look… sad that we ended up here anyway.
Probably also trying to avoid the headache of “what happens when a candidate is sent to prison”. That’s either going to be a lot of work for you or someone you know higher up, who isn’t going to like that paperwork, especially such a high profile case.
So, extortion. Cool. Justice waits for cowards, what a country I live in…
Investigate that judge.
That judge has been fine so far.
Maybe this will increase voter turnout for people who want to see Trump get sentenced and not avoid his sentence
So what happens if he’s elected but is incarcerated at the time of his inauguration?
I’ve been disappointed each and every time something gets delayed, but at this point I think I’m willing to acknowledge that it is perhaps best for everyone is Trump is sentenced after the election.
If he were to go to jail now you’d never hear the end of it. As though the US was stolen by the radical left, imprisoning political opponents et cetera. Obviously that’s not a narrative based in reality, but it would be the prevailing narrative amongst conservatives none the less.
The republicans would fall inline behind someone equally repulsive, if just a tiny bit more electable.
The best way forward for everyone is for him to lose convincingly in November, and then send his ass to proper jail with no twitter or diapers et cetera.
On a prison diet with no prospects he will become frail and irrelevant in a matter of weeks. Even his own children wouldn’t bother to visit because jail is icky and their bread is already buttered really. It’s the outcome he deserves and I would very much like to see it.
This is the only way the republican party would dial back the weirdness.
This is the only way the republican party would dial back the weirdness.
Completely collapsing as a party is another option, which in my mind leads to a better outcome.
