Noted attorney Alan Dershowitz said Tuesday that New York Justice Juan Merchan’s decision to postpone sentencing President-elect Donald Trump following his conviction was “clever but wrong” and violated Trump’s constitutional rights.
Merchan ruled Monday night that Trump did not have any presidential immunity in the case centered around a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Dershowitz said that Merchan was keeping Trump from appealing his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsification of business records. (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz Outlines How Trump Lawyers Should Handle Bragg’s Plan To ‘Freeze’ Business Docs Case)
“What Merchan rules was that no, no, no of any of the actions that were introduced into evidence were private actions, actions outside of his role as president,” Dershowitz said. “Basically, what I’m saying is the whole case was outside of his role as president and therefore the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t apply at all.”
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“But, you know, then, he did something else clever, but wrong, unconstitutional,” Dershowitz said. “He basically said, you know, I’m ruling, and even if I’m wrong, you can’t appeal it… because I’m going to be putting off the sentencing until after he finishes the presidency. You know the rules in New York, you can’t appeal something unless there’s a sentence and I’m not going to sentence you and if I can’t sentence you, I can’t be proved wrong. So, I am now above the law, I am the king.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg signed a legal filing opposing a motion by Trump’s attorneys to dismiss the case Nov. 19, instead urging Merchan to postpone sentencing until 2029, after Trump would leave office. Dershowitz said Trump’s team was not helpless to address Merchan’s ruling.
“If he rules that the sentencing is put off for years, I would surely recommend to Trump’s lawyers that they take a mandamus, that is a special writ, to the appellate division,” Dershowitz said, explaining the structure of New York’s court system before repeating his recommendation. Dershowitz also took aim at the underlying charges Trump was convicted on.
“The entire conviction is phony,” Dershowitz said. “The entire conviction is… based on nothing other than a made-up law and also their rulings. I was in the courtroom, I saw them. There are rulings that are so plainly unconstitutional… and plainly illegal that if there was an appeal, it would be reversed.”
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