This didn’t take long at all and it certainly goes a long ways towards explaining why Donald Trump was so jubilant when the Supreme Court handed down its intepretation of presidential immunity Monday. It was assumed that Trump was kicking up his heels in anticipation of running wild during a second (and more) term(s) but no, he had a different angle going on: he intends to erase his recent conviction for 34 felonies. How? Oh, that is going to be an exercise in tortured logic. Grab the arms of your chair and if you have a headache remedy keep it nearby, as you read the New York Times:
Donald J. Trump began an effort on Monday to throw out his recent criminal conviction in Manhattan and postpone his upcoming sentencing, citing a new Supreme Court ruling that granted him broad immunity from prosecution for official actions he took as president, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers sought permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict, doing so just hours after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling involving one of Mr. Trump’s other criminal cases. The letter will not be public until Tuesday at the earliest, after which prosecutors will have a chance to respond.
The move from Mr. Trump’s lawyers came 10 days before the judge was set to sentence the former president for his crimes in Manhattan, where a jury convicted him on 34 felony counts related to his cover-up of a sex scandal in the run-up to the 2016 election. Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the judge, Juan M. Merchan, to postpone the July 11 sentencing while the judge weighs whether the Supreme Court ruling affects the conviction.
Alright, that’s the basic set up here. Now here is the *logic* that Trump’s staff of shysters are expected to employ. Prosecutors built their case against Trump partly “on evidence from his time in the White House.” This is where it is going to get murky. Under the Supreme Court’s ruling, prosecutors may not charge a president “for any official acts” — and they also cannot “cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.” So, where this is going, is into total murkiness, because anything that a future president wants to sweep under the carpet will be hidden under the magical rubric of “official acts.” Look for that to be the mantra going forward, “official acts.” And what might that include? Hey, I’m going to bet it includes everything, including a president wiping his or her butt after using the john. That’s where this is going. That much is plain as day.
It is unclear how the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, will respond, or whether the judge will delay the first sentencing of an American president. But Mr. Trump’s effort appeared to cause at least a brief interruption: The district attorney’s office did not on Monday make a sentencing recommendation to the judge about whether to imprison Mr. Trump, as was expected.
The article goes on to point out on a strictly procedural basis that it might be too late for Justice Juan Merchan to do anything. “The deadline for filing post-trial motions was last month, and it is unclear whether the judge will seriously entertain the motion, even in light of the high court’s decision.” Most likely the sentencing will go forward and Trump’s lawyers can raise the issue when they appeal his conviction. That is, if they appeal his conviction. In order to appeal a case generally speaking you must find a reversible error and if such a thing were so handy and evident in the hush money case (or, for that matter, in the E. Jean Carroll cases,) then very likely an appeal would have already been begun. So once again, this is Trump’s lawyers playing a long shot, because that’s all that they have to play.
Long shot or not, Trump didn’t let any grass grow under his feet. His lawyers got moving to see just how far they could stretch and bastardize the ruling, starting on day one. This particular ruling of SCOTUS is going to be hotly contested. The first signs are already out there and the ink has barely dried.
The Supreme Court didn’t give Trump the complete immunity that he asked for but they may have given him something just as good, in fact better, which is enough vagueness and ambiguity to where he can run wild. Expect to see him attempt to do just that and get out of his July 11 sentencing.
1. It’s a State court not a federal court. Thus all recourse is only possible in the state court system. This is not that.
2. It’s about behavior he undertook before he was President
3. It’s about CRIMES COMMITTED before he was President.
4. The ruling states that immunity is for acts committed WHILE President, not before, or after, (which covers the MAL espionage/stolen documents case.)
No argument with any of this. The fact that he’s even trying to muddy the waters (and the fact that the case even paused today, while this was happening) is what’s alarming. To me it speaks to Trump’s mania to use the concept of immunity to poison everything.
Very much so Ursula. We have seen time and time again there are no straws too small to grasp at for trumps team. Makes it almost seem like Roberts,Thomas or one the federalist judges he entreated before yesterdays ruling private told him not to sweat it…?
the most important point n the NYT article is :” . . on a strictly procedural basis that it might be too late for Justice Juan Merchan to do anything. “The deadline for filing post-trial motions was last month. A competent lawyer would have protect the client by timely appealing and alleging there in that D T has immunity as president for all of the acts he was convicted in by NY. (which is what d t lawyers have been arguing all along. competent Lawyers anticipate a change in the law and include that as a basis on which to appeal. d t’s clown car of lawyers blew it again as his lawyers failed to preserve that presidential immunity issue in the appeal they already filed. a 1st year law student knows you cannot extend the time for filing your appeal merely because because a new case comes down.
Bad news on this front! Can’t say I understand the reason behind the delay…
“The hearing, previously scheduled for July 11, will be delayed until at least September 18.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna160028