President-elect Donald Trump unleashes on ‘crooked Joe Biden’ over Jan. 10 sentencing date

President-elect Donald Trump has unleashed his fury over the “evil” and “illegal” treatment he claims he is subjected to after a Manhattan court set his sentencing date for his criminal conviction in a hush money case.

“There has never been a president who has been treated as evilly and illegally as I have,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in a series of posts spanning 12 hours.

“Corrupt Democratic judges and prosecutors have targeted a political opponent of a president, ME, at levels of injustice never seen before.”

Trump called the Justice Department and the FBI “corrupt” when referring to the raid on his Mar-a-Largo home in 2022, saying it “will go down as one of the ‘dirtiest tricks’ ever perpetrated by a candidate. dumb as a rock, Sleepy Joe Biden.”

He described the Manhattan District Attorney’s handling of his case as a “witch hunt,” adding that the case “should never have been filed.”

“This illegitimate political attack is nothing more than a rigged farce. ‘Acting’ Judge Merchan, who is a radical partisan, has just issued another order that is knowingly illegal, goes against our Constitution and, if allowed to stand, would be the end of the presidency as we know it.”

Referring to a gag order imposed on Trump, the Republican who will take office on January 20 said: “I am the only political opponent in the history of the United States who is not allowed to defend himself: a despicable violation of the First Amendment!”

Judge Juan Merchán rules that Trump should be sentenced on January 10 in the criminal case in which he was found guilty of charges related to paying hush money to a porn star, adding that he is not willing to impose a sentence of jail.

Judge Juan Merchán said he denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case because of his victory in the presidential election.

The judge said the Republican president-elect will be able to appear at the sentencing, which will take place just 10 days before his inauguration, either in person or virtually.

Judge Merchan wrote Friday that a sentence of “unconditional release” (i.e., no custody, monetary fine or probation) would be “the most viable solution.”

In Trump’s second motion to dismiss the case filed since his conviction in May, his defense attorneys argued that having the case on him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern.

Judge Merchan rejected that argument, writing that overturning the jury’s verdict “would undermine the rule of law immeasurably.”

“Defendant’s status as president-elect does not require the drastic and ‘rare’ application of (the court’s) authority to grant the motion (to dismiss),” Judge Merchan wrote in the decision.

Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, but Judge Merchan postponed the sentencing indefinitely after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.

Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which brought the case, said there were measures other than the “extreme remedy” of overturning the jury’s verdict that could ease Trump’s concerns about being distracted by a criminal case. while serving as president.

They suggested several options for Judge Merchan, including delaying sentencing until Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029, or ensuring a sentence that does not involve prison time.

Prosecutors also said the judge could simply end the case with a notation that Trump was never sentenced and that his conviction was neither upheld nor overturned on appeal.

They said a similar approach was used in cases where a defendant dies after being convicted but before being sentenced.

The case arose from a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels.

The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.

In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. It was the first time that a former or sitting United States president had been convicted or charged with a criminal offense.

Trump has pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to damage his 2024 campaign.

On December 16, Trump lost another attempt to overturn the conviction in light of the US Supreme Court’s July 1 decision that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official actions and that they cannot be present evidence of your official actions in criminal cases for personal conduct. .

In denying Trump’s motion to dismiss, Judge Merchan said that prosecution for “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion into the authority and function of the executive branch.”

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, but jail time is not required.

Before his election victory, legal experts said Trump was unlikely to be locked up due to his lack of a criminal record and his advanced age.

Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one related to classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump’s election victory.

Trump’s state criminal case in Georgia on charges stemming from his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state is in limbo.