Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has suggested that Judge Juan Merchan not toss out issuing a ruling in President-elect Donald Trump’s business records trial.
In 82-page legal filing, prosecutors for Bragg wrote that the “Court should reject defendant’s motion” to have his indictment and the jury’s guilty verdict dismissed in the aftermath of Trump’s win in the presidential election, according to Politico.
Prosecutors added that Trump should “at most” be able to be given “temporary accommodations” during his second term as president in order to prevent his business records case and the verdict from the jury from “interfering with his official decision-making.”
“This Court should reject defendant’s motion to ‘immediately’ dismiss the indictment and vacate the jury’s guilty verdict based on the outcome of the recent presidential election,” prosecutors wrote. “Def.’s Mem. 1.1. There are no grounds for such relief now, prior to defendant’s inauguration, because President-elect immunity does not exist. And even after the inauguration, defendant’s temporary immunity as the sitting President will not justify the extreme remedy of discarding the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict and wiping out the already-completed phases of this criminal proceeding.”
Bragg’s team continued: “At most, defendant should receive temporary accommodations during his presidency to prevent this criminal case from meaningfully interfering with his official decision-making.”
Politico noted that prosecutors outlined “various mechanisms” for Merchan to use “to preserve the guilty verdict:
The options include simply suspending the case until Trump’s term is over. Merchan could also announce in advance that he won’t sentence Trump to any jail time and won’t consider Trump’s conduct as president when determining a future sentence — a declaration, prosecutors said, that would dramatically reduce concerns about whether the looming sentence could impede Trump’s presidency.
As Breitbart News’s Ken Klukowski previously reported, Merchan “rescheduled ruling on motions to set aside the politically motivated New York convictions.”
On November 22, Merchan issued a ruling, granting a request “for permission to file a motion to dismiss” that was brought forward by Trump’s attorneys.
The motion to dismiss is due by December 2, and a response from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office must be submitted a week later, by Monday, December 9. Merchan also adjourned the sentencing that was set for November 26.
At the end of May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first-degree regarding payments that were made to adult porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election.
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