President-elect Trump took to Truth Social to share his frustration after a judge set a Jan. 10 sentencing date in the New York admissions case and requested a gag order that would bar him from discussing prosecutors with court officials.
“This illegal political attack is nothing more than a manufactured charade. Radical partisan Justice Merchan has just issued another order that is knowingly illegal and unconstitutional and, if allowed to stand, will spell the end of the presidency as we know it.” The president-elect wrote: Friday truth social post.
“Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is imposing an illegal gag order on me, the president and president-elect. Just because we cannot expose the disqualifying and illegal conflicts between him and his family,” he added.
On Friday morning, New York Judge Juan Merchan ordered sentencing for January 10, rejecting Trump’s request to dismiss the case to accommodate the incoming presidency. He indicated that he would not face any punishment for his felony conviction. This fall, Trump appealed a partial gag order related to the hush money case, but it was dismissed and remains in place.
Last May, a New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels by his former fixer with the intent to influence the 2016 presidential election. .
After Friday’s sentencing was announced, Trump spokesman Stephen Cheng said the case should be dismissed, citing presidential immunity provisions that Murchan could not apply to.
“Today’s order by deeply conflicted Manhattan DA Witch Hunt Acting Judge Merchan directly violates the Supreme Court’s immunity decision and other long-standing legal principles,” Cheung said.
On Friday, Trump also criticized Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is expected to resign before the president takes office.
“Through his fraud and misconduct, Merchant made the Bragg scam, which according to every legal scholar should have been dead on arrival, appear ‘to life,’” the Republican lawmaker wrote in a follow-up post.
“While the crazy Jack Smith was ‘packed’ to The Hague after losing all the politically rigged cases against me, there is simply no way I can leave alone a far worse and more corrupt merchant than Smith in the fight for my desperate political opponents. “Go away with this pretense.”
President Trump has the option to appear virtually at his sentencing, which takes place ahead of the inauguration ceremony. The president-elect still has the opportunity to appeal the jury’s conviction.