USA Sentencing against Trump still to come before inauguration
The sentencing hearing in the New York hush money trial against Donald Trump is now to take place as planned this Friday (January 10) - ten days before the inauguration of the US President-elect.
07.01.2025, 02:50
SDA
Judge Juan Merchan rejected a request from Trump's lawyers to postpone the announcement of the sentence. Trump is due to be sworn in as US President on January 20.
The lawyers had previously announced in a letter on Monday that they would continue to fight the sentence and asked the judge to postpone the sentencing until then. It is considered likely that Trump will also appeal against the judge's latest decision.
The trial concerned the illegal concealment of 130,000 dollars in hush money that Trump had paid to porn actress Stormy Daniels - in the court's opinion with the aim of gaining advantages in the 2016 election campaign. A jury in New York found Trump guilty of 34 charges at the end of May.
However, the sentence is unlikely to have any direct impact on Trump's presidency. Judge Merchan had already indicated that he was not inclined to impose a prison sentence on Trump. The US Congress officially confirmed the Republican's victory in the presidential election on Monday.
Originally, the sentence should have been announced in mid-September. However, Judge Merchan then granted Trump's request that the sentence not be announced until after the presidential election. There has never been a sentence announcement for a president-elect in the history of the USA.
