Judge 'took the wind out of Trump's legal arguments' in criminal case: former prosecutor

A lot of observers were upset by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan's decision not to sentence Donald Trump to jail time in connection with the president-elect's felonies, but Merchan actually made the best out of a bad situation, an ex-prosecutor said.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance weighed in on the news on Saturday, writing in her Substack blog that, "The Judge tipped his hand about his intentions, if the case does make it to sentencing, in his Friday order." She's referring to the fact that the judge said he wasn’t inclined to impose prison time.

"While some folks are upset that prosecutors and the Judge aren’t going full steam ahead, I have a different view," she said. "Given that they are stuck with a bad situation that is out of their control—a convicted defendant about to become president—they are doing the best they can to preserve the conviction itself. Trump would like to do away with it altogether. They seem intent on preventing that from happening, and it would be a disgrace if Trump is able to get out from under the jury’s verdict."

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Vance went on to say that, "If Trump isn’t sentenced before he takes office, there would be an absence of finality to the case."

"Even if there was an order that it would be put off while he was in office with sentencing to follow once he left, there would be the risk that it would never become final hanging in the air," she added. "A lot can happen in four years. Trump could find a way to make it go away even though it’s a state case. Presidents have enormous powers, and not everyone is willing to stand up to them."

Finally, Vance said that, "By announcing his intent to impose the unconditional discharge, Judge Merchan takes the wind out of Trump’s legal arguments for delaying sentencing."

"He deprives the appellate courts of solid reasons to put off sentencing. Trump will have no further obligations to the court. He won’t be able to argue the proceedings interfere with his transition—the Judge is even letting him appear remotely, and it’s going to be tough for the man who was on the golf course while the vote for speaker was taking place to say he can’t set aside 30 minutes to hop onto a Zoom hearing," she wrote. "With no jail time, no fine, no supervision by probation looming over him, there is nothing to interfere with Trump’s preparation to take office. And it would be difficult to articulate any unique harm from the sentencing. Trump has, after all, already been convicted and reelected despite that fact. Legally, Trump would have to convince an appellate court that he would be irreparably harmed if he is sentenced on the 10th to justify putting it off. Judge Merchan has left him without much to work with. Trump can appeal the jury’s verdict and anything else he objects to after the sentencing, and a court can fix any error it might find."

Read the full post here.