A former prosecutor is discussing the possibility that President-elect Donald Trump could still be sentenced before his inauguration, especially after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sought to prevent the dismissal of his hush money case.
Trump's team argued that the case should be tossed on the grounds of presidential immunity, adding that a sentence prior to his inauguration would disrupt the transition process.
Bragg's team, however, proposed a series of solutions to the arguments, including guaranteeing that Trump does not get a custodial sentence and delaying it until after he leaves office in 2029.
Joyce Vance, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, analyzed the latest moves in her blog Civil Discourse. In a blog post, she highlighted Bragg's argument that nothing prevents Trump from being sentenced before the inauguration, and that the president-elect's arguments (Hunter Biden getting a pardon, Bragg ignoring violent crime in the city among them) are not relevant to the case.
The one argument that does need consideration, she added, is "whether Supremacy Clause issues that could make it inappropriate to continue the case once Trump is in office apply before his inauguration as well."
"This was a typical sort of "give us an inch and we'll take a mile" argument from Trump's lawyers, who claimed a sort of global, timeless bar to any further action against him, even though Trump's crimes predate his first ascension to the presidency, and he is currently not the president," Vance said.
She went on to clarify that Bragg did reach a conclusion on the issue, saying that "there is no special rule for people who will become, but aren't yet, the president." Using his presidential immunity case against him, Vance said that "presidential immunity under Article II of the Constitution does not extend to the President-elect."
Consequently, the President-elect does not "perform any Article II functions under the Constitution, and there are no Article II functions that would be burdened by ordinary criminal process involving the President-elect," the post explains. In other words, Trump has "no duties to perform, so he has no excuse to avoid sentencing in a case in which he has already been convicted," Vance added.
In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts brought against him in connection with payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels, marking the first time a former U.S. president had been convicted of a crime.
The former official concluded by saying that Trump could indeed be sentenced with "service of any custodial sentence deferred until he leaves office." There are other options, Bragg said, like staying the sentencing until the end of Trump's term.
"What happens next is up to Judge Merchan. Trump will almost certainly try to run out the clock with appeals if he dislikes the ruling. But sometimes, moral victories are worth it for their own sake. Today, Alvin Bragg demanded, on behalf of all of us, that Donald Trump face some measure of the justice he deserves," Vance finished.
© 2024 Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
