Judge to rule on throwing out Trump hush money conviction

NEW YORK - The judge in US President-elect Donald Trump's New York criminal case will decide Tuesday whether to throw out his conviction, potentially handing him a major legal win as he prepares to take office again.

Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.

Trump, due to be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.

That landmark ruling saw the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, decide that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.

Ahead of the election, Trump's lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move which prosecutors have firmly rejected.

If Merchan throws out the case on that basis, there will be no sentencing of Trump, 78.

If he does not, Trump's legal team would almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any sentencing, insisting it would interfere with Trump's role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on January 20.

'A severe blow'

An editorial in the Kansas City Star newspaper called for the judge in the case to "do what was once unthinkable -- force a president-elect to take the oath of office in a jail cell."

"The surreal scene, while certainly shocking for the rest of the free world to witness, would send an unmistakable message -- the rule of law still applies in America."

But Trump's former attorney general Bill Barr said that both the New York case as well as others around the country had been "plainly brought for political purposes (and) have now been extensively aired and rejected in the court of public opinion."

"Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand," he wrote.

Trump has repeatedly derided the case as a witch hunt, saying it "should be rightfully terminated."

Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.

However, as president he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, reportedly has begun to wind them down.

A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.

"Trump's victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct," said former prosecutor Randall Eliason in an article on Substack.

"That's a severe blow to the ideal of the rule of law."

The New York conviction, coming just months before the election which Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic upsets in the unprecedented race.

In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.

Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic Party's candidate following a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.

That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color to stand for a major US party. - AFP