Donald Trump sits at the defendant’s table inside Manhattan Criminal Court during jury deliberations on May 29, 2024.
BREITBART | Published November 14, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump moved one step closer to beating Alvin Bragg’s lawfare against him on Tuesday as Justice Juan Merchan rescheduled ruling on motions to set aside the politically motivated New York convictions, but it could also be an attempt to trap the president in this unconstitutional prosecution.
Bragg’s prosecution of former President and current President-elect Trump has been plagued by a host of constitutional violations, beginning with his indictment. The Constitution’s Sixth Amendment gives every defendant the right to be adequately “informed of the nature of and cause of the accusation” against him. Yet Bragg’s indictment alleged that Trump committed a felony by falsifying business records with the “intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof” but never specified what that crime was. That violates the Sixth Amendment, as recognized by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which includes New York.
At the end of Trump’s trial, Merchan and Bragg revealed that the second crime was a New York law to “promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means.” But those jury instructions never specified the “unlawful means.” In other words, the second crime now depends on a third crime.
But then Merchan’s jury instructions go on to hint at that third crime: violating the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). Specifically, Bragg alleges that Trump made a payment as part of a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) to keep quiet an alleged interlude that the president steadfastly denies, with Merchan instructing the jury that they can consider that an illegal federal campaign expense.
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SOURCE: www.breitbart.com
RELATED: Judge in Trump’s ‘hush money’ trial considers tossing felony conviction after election win
NEW YORK POST | Published November 14, 2024
The Manhattan judge who oversaw Donald Trump’s “hush money” criminal trial is expected to announce next week if the president-elect’s historic felony conviction will still stand.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan had already delayed sentencing by more than four months to come after the election — and gave himself until next Tuesday to decide if the conviction should be tossed.
Trump’s overwhelming election win will further embolden his legal team “to make sure that sentencing never happens,” CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid noted late Wednesday.
“Here, they’re going to argue to the judge that the sentencing should never happen because now that Trump is president-elect,” Reid noted.
“They will say that he is entitled to the same constitutional protections as a sitting president and should be protected from state actors, and in this case, state prosecutors.”
Trump, 78, faces up to four years in prison after being convicted of 34 counts of felony falsifying business records to cover up payments to porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
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