Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says Donald Trump’s imminent return to the presidency is not a reason to throw out the 34-count conviction that jurors delivered in the hush money case earlier this year.
Bragg conceded in a court filing that Trump cannot be sentenced while he is president. But he said Justice Juan Merchan has a variety of options to put the case on hold during Trump’s second term — and then issue a sentence after he leaves office in January 2029….
Prosecutors argued that Merchan can use various mechanisms to preserve the guilty verdict while taking steps to shield Trump from consequences that could be seen as hindering his ability to focus on his presidential duties.
The options include simply suspending the case until Trump’s term is over. Merchan could also announce in advance that he won’t sentence Trump to any jail time and won’t consider Trump’s conduct as president when determining a future sentence — a declaration, prosecutors said, that would dramatically reduce concerns about whether the looming sentence could impede Trump’s presidency.
Or, in a peculiar suggestion from prosecutors, Merchan could look to a procedure known as “abatement” that is used when a defendant dies after a verdict but while other aspects of the case remain pending. In such circumstances, the state “abates” the prosecution, a process that preserves the conviction but ends further proceedings…