N.Y.'s Top Appeals Court Won't Block Trump Sentencing

Judge Merchan has indicated he is inclined to sentence President-Elect Trump to an unconditional discharge, meaning there will be no further sanctions, supervision or jail time,

DerOhannesian said

The judge timed the sentencing so that it would be before the inauguration, as it would have raised issues if Trump were the sitting president,

he said

This sentence, together with the entire proceeding, has many unique characteristics. It is unusual to see an unconditional discharge after a felony conviction. But in this case, the conviction may be more significant than any possible punishment,

he said

Alvin Braggmanhattan District Attorney

Defendant now asks this court to take the extraordinary step of intervening in a pending state criminal trial to prevent the scheduled sentencing from taking place – before final judgment has been entered by the trial court, and before any direct appellate review of defendant’s conviction. There is no basis for such intervention,

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office wrote

There is a compelling public interest in proceeding to sentencing,

Manhattan prosecutors wrote

The President-elect is, by definition, not yet the President,

prosecutors wrote

Indeed, if defendant is ever to be sentenced in this proceeding, the least burdensome time to do so is now, before his inauguration on January 20, 2025,

they wrote

The particular immunity-based arguments that defendant has actually raised also do not support any automatic stay. And no discretionary stay of the January 10 sentencing is warranted either."

In the 19-page letter, Wu wrote

Rarely if ever has the court confronted a free-speech case that matters to so many people,

lawyers for the users and content creators wrote

President Trump alone possesses the consummate dealmaking expertise, the electoral mandate, and the political will to negotiate a resolution to save the platform while addressing the national security concerns expressed by the Government — concerns which President Trump himself has acknowledged,

D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice to be his administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, wrote in a legal brief filed with the court

It’s called weaponisation of justice and it’s happened at a level no one has ever seen before,

said a visibly annoyed president-elect from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida

Would all this be happening if Trump didn’t get elected? Nobody knows,

the lobbyist said

Jim Jordanjudiciary Committee chairman

Remember that a few years ago, [the social media platforms] all kicked President Trump off the platform. Now, they’re all going to Mar-a-Lago to visit with him because they know like this Trump administration is pro-First Amendment, and pro-free speech, and so it’s a dramatic change,

Jordan said

Brittany Pettersencalifornia

Our government works best when the life experiences of the American people are represented,

Pettersen said in a statement

Hakeem Jeffrieshouse Minority Leader

We’re looking forward, not backward,

said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries

Senior leadership of McConnell’s personal office will remain: Chief of Staff Terry Carmack, Communications Director Robert Steurer, Press Secretary Stephanie Penn, Speechwriter Sophia Slacik, and Legislative Assistants Andrew Fisher, Dominic Travis, Richard St. Onge, and Will Clark.”

The release adds

After Trump first got elected in 2016, ... the legacy media wrote non-stop about how misinformation was a threat to democracy.”

he said