Donald Trump’s lawyers failed in another attempt to prevent the sentencing in the New York hush money trial on Friday. Appeals judge Ellen Gesmer rejected a request to that effect after a close hearing. On Monday, the judge in charge of the case, Juan Mercan, also dismissed Trump. Now the US President-elect could appeal to other higher courts so that the punishment does not take place as planned this Friday (January 10th) – ten days before the Republican’s re-inauguration.
According to media reports, the lawyers argued in the appeal hearing that immunity applies to US presidents. Gesmer responded that this did not include president-elects, wrote the New York Times.
The trial was about the illegal concealment of $130,000 in hush money that Trump had paid to the porn actress Stormy Daniels – according to the court’s conviction, with the aim of gaining advantages in the 2016 election campaign. Jurors in New York found Trump guilty on 34 counts in late May.
The punishment is unlikely to have a direct impact on Trump’s presidency. Judge Merchan had already indicated that he was not inclined to impose a prison sentence on him. The sentence was originally supposed to have been announced in mid-September. But then Merchan approved Trump’s request that the punishment not be announced until after the presidential election. There has never been a sentencing announcement for a president-elect in US history.
