The United States Supreme Court rejected the appeal presented by the president-elect Donald Trump to block the sentence that a New York judge will impose on him in the case of the payment to the exactriz adult film Stormy Daniels. The decision, adopted by five votes to four, confirms the judicial agenda of the judge Juan Merchan.
Trump, found guilty in May by a popular jury of 34 counts of accounting falsification, would have used these records to hide a payment intended for silence an alleged extramarital relationshipwhich the tycoon flatly denies. The incident occurred in 2016, shortly before the presidential elections that brought him to power.
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At 78 years old and a few days after assuming the presidency again, the magnate tried to block the ruling through an emergency appeal, arguing that the ruling would cause “damage to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government.” However, both the Court of Appeals of the state of New York and Judge Jenny Rivera rejected their requests.
He fiscal of district of Manhattan, Alvin Bragg, asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal, arguing that Trump was accused, tried and convicted as a private citizen for conduct that the former president himself admits is ‘unofficial’. Bragg He also stressed that the Supreme Court lacks jurisdiction over ongoing state criminal proceedings.
First president convicted
The case takes on a historic character by making the Republican the first elected president of EU in being criminally convicted. Despite this, the sentence will not include a prison sentence, according to the Judge Merchan, who plans to grant an “unconditional discharge.” This legal figure, unusual in high-profile cases, allows the process to be closed without imposing a fineprobation or confinement.
In Truth Social, Trump He described the situation as a “witch hunt” and criticized the judge Merchant, of Colombian origin, whom he described as “corrupt.” At the same time, he expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court justices for their “time and effort” to, according to him, “remedy a great injustice.”
This case represents a milestone in the political and judicial history of the United States, marking Trump’s entry into the White House as the first convicted president.