Ex-federal prosecutor: Why Trump’s NY 'sentencing should proceed promptly'

17 November 2024

As President-Elect Donald Trump and his attorneys seek to make the MAGA leader's legal cases disappear following his election victory, former federal prosecutor Randall Eliason makes the case for why Trump's New York hush money case sentencing should still move forward.

"Out of an abundance of caution," Judge Juan "Merchan avoided a preelection sentencing that potentially could have influenced the election," Eliason writes in a Sunday op-ed published by The Atlantic. "But the election result changes nothing about the criminal case. Now that the election is over, sentencing should proceed promptly."

The George Washington University white-collar criminal law professor notes, "Once in office, Trump may cancel federal prosecutions of himself and his allies. He has threatened to use the Justice Department to pursue political opponents. He may seek to bend the justice system to his will in unprecedented ways. But that doesn’t mean the DA or Merchan should 'obey in advance' by abandoning the jury’s verdict."

The fact the president-elect’s lawyers "are essentially arguing that the election wipes the slate clean, that the people have spoken and all criminal matters must be dismissed," is pure "nonsense," Eliason emphasizes.

Although "a majority of voters apparently concluded that Trump’s criminal cases were not disqualifying—just as the sexual assaults, pandemic response, efforts to overturn the last election, and many other things apparently were not disqualifying," Eliason continues, "that doesn’t mean they didn’t happen or that Trump is not legally and morally responsible."

He concludes, "The sentencing should go forward. The argument by Trump’s attorneys that the entire case should be dismissed based on his reelection amounts to nothing more than a claim that a president (or in this case, a president-elect) is above the law and may never be held criminally accountable."

Eliason's full column is available at this link (subscription required).

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