Author: Unknown
Published on: 03/01/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
Judge Juan Merchan issued an 18-page written decision calling for Trump to appear, either in person or virtually, on January 10 to receive his sentence. Merchan also denied Trump’s bid to dismiss his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to a hush-money payment made during his 2016 presidential campaign. His inauguration ceremony is scheduled for January 20, a mere 10 days after the upcoming hearing. Hush-money case centred on $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels after she alleged she and Trump had an affair. Prosecutors successfully argued that Trump attempted to cover up the payment, made through his former lawyer Michael Cohen, in order to avoid damaging press during the 2016 election season. In July, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court issued a broad ruling on presidential immunity. But the court left ambiguous what precisely an “official” act could be. That issue has cropped up in the defence team’s motions to dismiss the New York hush-money case. Merchan weighed the defence argument that a president must be free to “safeguard the interests of the Nation” he said he balanced that argument against other “competing factors” including the idea that “no one is above the law” and “the importance of protecting the sanctity of a jury verdict”
Original: 897 words Summary: 214 words Percent reduction: 76.14%