Donald Trump’s sentencing for his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star was delayed on Tuesday until Sept. 18, less than seven weeks before the U.S. election.
Justice Juan Merchan pushed back the sentencing date so he can weigh the former U.S. president’s argument he should have been immune from prosecution under Monday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for official acts.
The new timeline means Merchan could decide the Republican presidential candidate’s punishment, including whether to jail him, in the thick of the campaign season before the Nov. 5 election.
The sentencing had previously been set for July 11, just days before the July 15 kickoff of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
Trump faces an uphill battle getting the hush money conviction overturned, since much of the conduct at issue in the case predated his time in office.
Analysts discuss what happens now that the U.S. Supreme Court has decided anything a president does in an official capacity is immune to prosecution.
Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked Merchan to allow them to argue his conviction should be overturned due to the justices’ 6-3 ruling on July 1, which also held that evidence related to presidents’ official actions cannot be used to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said earlier on Tuesday that Trump’s argument was “without merit,” but agreed to delay the sentencing to give Trump the chance to make his case.
A Manhattan jury on May 30 found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer Michael Cohen’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to stay quiet about an alleged 2006 sexual encounter until after the 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Prosecutors said the payment was part of an illicit scheme to influence the election.
Trump denies having had sex with Daniels and has vowed to appeal the conviction after his sentencing.
‘Purely personal’
In their letter to Merchan, defence lawyers argued that prosecutors had presented evidence involving Trump’s official acts as president, including social media posts he made and conversations he had while in the White House.
“This official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury,” lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
Last year, Trump made a similar argument as part of an unsuccessful push to move the hush money case to federal court. In denying Trump’s request in July 2023, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote that the payment to Daniels “was a purely personal item.”
“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts,” Hellerstein wrote.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump remained defiant after being found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush-money trial in New York, saying the trial was ‘rigged’ and a ‘disgrace’
Trump’s lawyers appealed Hellerstein’s decision, but later abandoned the effort.
In his written ruling, Merchan said he would rule on Trump’s request to set aside the jury’s verdict by Sept. 6, with sentencing to follow less than two weeks later should the judge decide to uphold the conviction. Trump’s lawyers must submit their arguments by July 10, and prosecutors face a July 24 deadline to respond.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 00:06:27 +0000
More than 100 killed after stampede at religious event in northern India
A stampede among thousands of people at a religious gathering in northern India has killed at least 105 and left scores injured, officials said Tuesday, with many women and children among the dead.
Attendees had rushed to leave the makeshift tent following an event with Hindu figure Bhole Baba, local media reported. They cited authorities who said heat and suffocation inside could have been a factor. Video of the aftermath showed that the structure appeared to have collapsed. Women wailed over the dead.
Senior police officer Shalabh Mathur in Uttar Pradesh state confirmed that 105 people had died while 84 others were injured and admitted to hospitals.
Deadly stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds gather in small areas with shoddy infrastructure and few safety measures.
Police officer Rajesh Singh said there was likely overcrowding at the event in a village in Hathras district, about 350 kilometres southwest of the state capital, Lucknow.
Initial reports suggested that more than 15,000 people had gathered for the event, which had permission to host about 5,000.
“People started falling one upon another, one upon another. Those who were crushed died. People there pulled them out,” witness Shakuntala Devi told the Press Trust of India news agency.
Bodies were brought to hospitals and morgues by trucks and private vehicles, government official Matadin Saroj said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered condolences to the families of the dead and said the federal government was working with state authorities to ensure the injured received help.
Uttar Pradesh’s chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, called the stampede “extremely sad and heart-wrenching” in a post on social media platform X, formerly Twitter. He said authorities were investigating the cause.
In 2013, pilgrims visiting a temple for a popular Hindu festival in central Madhya Pradesh state trampled each other amid fears that a bridge would collapse. At least 115 were crushed to death or died in the river.
In 2011, more than 100 Hindu devotees died in a crush at a religious festival in the southern state of Kerala.
Published at Tue, 02 Jul 2024 13:43:29 +0000
