Prosecutors don’t want the conviction dropped entirely, but Trump is unlikely to be sentenced before 2029—if he is at all.
Topline
Manhattan prosecutors opposed President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to have his conviction on 34 felony counts thrown out because of his presidential win, but said in a filing Tuesday they would be fine with his sentencing being delayed until after Trump leaves office—or just ending the case without him ever being sentenced at all.Key Facts
Trump is trying to have his conviction thrown out based on “presidential immunity,” saying that the legal process against him has to end now that he’s been elected president.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case, said in a filing Tuesday it does not believe the charges should be thrown out and thinks Trump should still be sentenced, arguing Trump has no immunity now before he takes office, and that even when he’s in the White House, that still doesn’t “justify the extreme remedy of discarding the jury’s unanimous guilty verdict and wiping out the already-completed phases of this criminal proceeding.”
That being said, prosecutors said they agree that if Trump isn’t sentenced by the time he takes office—as will likely be the case—they agree he should receive “accommodations” that keep him from facing the criminal proceedings while in the White House, but the court could find a way to keep his guilty verdict intact without disrupting his presidency or throwing out the verdict entirely.
One way would be to postpone Trump’s sentencing until after he leaves office, prosecutors said, echoing an argument they’d made in a previous filing, meaning Trump would not be sentenced until at least 2029.
