Alvin Bragg Bows to the Powers of the Presidency, Requesting Trump’s Sentencing Be Delayed Until After His Second Term

District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s latest submission to Judge Juan Merchan signals he intends to press his hush money case against President Trump — even if he has to wait four years.Coming in the face of Trump’s efforts to get the case thrown out, Mr. Bragg’s move sets the stage for a contest between president and county prosecutor — one that could possibly reach the Supreme Court. Mr. Bragg concedes that Trump cannot be sentenced as president-elect. Instead, he proposes to Judge Merchan that the case be frozen and preserved during Trump’s second term.“The people,” Mr. Bragg said, “deeply respect the office of the president, are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, and acknowledge” that Trump’s inauguration “will raise unprecedented legal questions.” Mr. Bragg, an elected prosecutor who campaigned on a promise to “hold Trump accountable,” seems intent on seeing Trump formally classified as a convicted felon — which happens at sentencing — and punished. His position came into focus in a 12-page plan filed to Judge Merchan that outlines the prosecution’s position on whether the 34 convictions brought in against the president-elect can withstand the immunities of the presidency. Trump intends to file a motion to dismiss those “guilty” verdicts in light of his upcoming inauguration. It’s now clear that Mr. Bragg will oppose that motion.Judge Merchan had been due to decide next week Trump’s sentence for the 34 felony convictions — which could include prison. The jurist on Tuesday issued an indefinite delay on that decision. That ruling came in a short court order, with no reasoning provided. It appears that the court’s focus will now be on Trump’s motion to dismiss. If that is granted, sentencing would be moot.Before the election, Judge Merchan, who consistently ruled in the prosecution’s favor, had been expected to decide against Trump’s motion. Yet Trump’s election victory could change that calculus. How Mr. Bragg’s intention to see Trump punished four years hence will influence Judge Merchan is unclear.Trump’s convictions stem from payments made by his erstwhile lawyer, Michael Cohen, to an adult film star, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford. Falsification of business records is usually a misdemeanor in New York, but Mr. Bragg succeeded in persuading Judge Merchan and the Manhattan jury that the dissembling was done with the intent of perpetrating a second crime, thereby converting the charges into felonies.Mr. Bragg writes that “further proceedings before this Court should be adjourned to permit further litigation” of Trump’s motion to dismiss. It appears that Judge Merchan has adopted that position and cleared the calendar to focus on whether this state prosecution can survive a second Trump presidency. Mr. Bragg writes that “the People intend to oppose” Trump’s efforts to rid himself of the case. Trump’s core claim for dismissal, previewed in a letter to Judge Merchan, is that his status as president-elect grants him legal immunity from criminal prosecution. The district attorney contends that adopting that position would be crosswise with “the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system.”Mr. Bragg argues that “no current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post–trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution.” He ventures that precedent mandates that Judge Merchan must “balance competing constitutional interests.” The prosecutor suggests that Judge Merchan explore “various non-dimissal options” to work around Trump’s upcoming tenure of “temporary immunity.” Mr. Bragg suggests the “deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end” of Trump’s “upcoming presidential term.” That could mean that the case would be resurrected in 2029, the minute another president takes the oath of office. The possibility of prison would hang over the entirety of Trump’s term. The district attorney, for ballast, cites a caveat in the Department of Justice’s policy against prosecuting a sitting president. The DOJ worries that indefinite immunity would have “forever thwarted the public’s interest in enforcing its criminal law.” While state prosecutors are not bound by DOJ policy, it appears that Mr. Bragg recognizes that attempting to push forward now could earn a rebuke from the Supreme Court. If the proceedings are frozen, Trump would preserve his right to appeal any sentence that eventually is handed down. Whether Judge Merchan grants Mr. Bragg’s request for a pause — or Trump’s motion to dismiss — the ramifications could be felt in Georgia as well. The Peach State’s court of appeals on Monday delayed, without explanation, a hearing in District Attorney Fani Willis’s criminal racketeering case against the president-elect and 18 others. Ms. Willis could elect to copy Mr. Bragg’s example, or insist that the presidency is not a bar to state prosecutions.Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, in a statement on Tuesday, trumpeted Mr. Bragg’s decision to request a delay as “a total and definitive victory for President Trump and the American People who elected him in a landslide. The Manhattan DA has conceded that this Witch Hunt cannot continue.”

Alvin Bragg Bows to the Powers of the Presidency, Requesting Trump’s Sentencing Be Delayed Until After His Second Term

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