On Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan agreed to a one-week stay in Trump’s New York hush-money case.
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If Donald Trump and his lawyers had not tried to keep delaying the New York trial in which he was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, there is a good chance he would already have received a slap on the wrist and the country would have forgotten all about it.
But they did, which is why Americans were reminded a week after Trump’s election victory that he is a convicted felon.
On Tuesday, Judge Juan Merchan agreed to stay the case for a week to give prosecutors a chance to respond to Trump’s lawyers, who want the verdict to be thrown out because their client will be president again next year.
Merchan was supposed to rule today on how this year’s Supreme Court ruling, which grants presidents sweeping immunity for official acts, would apply to this case.
Seeing how there really is no connection to Trump’s presidency, and that the hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels was made before he was first elected in 2016, it seems as though that decision would have little bearing on this case.
Winning the presidency last week, however, makes this case unique.
Trump is already the only former commander in chief who is a convicted felon. After defeating Vice President Kamala Harris last week, he is now set to become the first felon to take the oath of office.
Of course, his lawyers are trying to prevent that by invalidating the unanimous decision of the jury.
In a letter to Merchan, they argued that a dismissal of the case is “necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
In other words, not only do Trump’s lawyers think that he should not be held to account for crimes committed while in office, they also believe that he should receive a “get out of jail free” card for crimes committed before he took office.
While that would undoubtedly suit Trump, who will also likely escape punishment for his coup attempt because he successfully ran out the clock, it seems like a miscarriage of justice.
However, even prosecutors acknowledged that this presents a unique situation.
“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence to the People on Friday require careful consideration,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a letter to Merchan.
The prosecution therefore consented to a one-week delay.
Of course, that only means that Americans will get another reminder next Tuesday that their president-elect is a convicted felon.
