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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Tuesday proposed a “novel” idea — based on a legal maneuver used in cases when people die — to keep Donald Trump’s “hush money” conviction in place.
The prosecutor suggested that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan could write on the court docket that Trump’s guilty verdict still stands, but cancel Trump’s sentencing entirely.
The unusual legal move would also freeze any other actions in the case — including an expected appeal — so that Trump can serve his second White House term.
Bragg’s office admitted that that “New York law does not expressly provide for” the wonky plan to be used, but urged Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to consider “novel remedies” because of “the context of this unique case.”
The prosecutor’s idea is based on a legal concept from Alabama known as “abatement-by-death,” where someone’s conviction can be preserved if they die before the case wends its way through the appeals process.
Bragg alternatively suggested in an 82-page legal filing that Merchan could delay Trump’s sentencing until he’s out of office, or agree that any future sentence wouldn’t include jail time.
Trump, 78, was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to former porn star Stormy Daniels.
His attorneys have pushed Merchan to dismiss the case entirely, claiming that failing to throw out the jury’s verdict would unconstitutionally interfere with the President-elect preparing to serve a second term.
The hush money case was the only one of four criminal cases that Trump faced to go to trial.
Federal charges that he hoarded classified documents at Mar-A-Lago and tried in vain to overturn the results of his 2020 presidential election loss to President Joe Biden before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol are both winding down now that he’s been elected president.
A state case in Georgia charging him with trying to tamper with the Peach State’s 2020 election results is in limbo after being delayed for months due to a controversy over a local district attorney’s romantic relationship with the man she hired to lead the prosecution.
It was not immediately clear late Tuesday when Judge Merchan would rule on Bragg and Trump’s dueling requests.
Trump is set to take office on Jan. 20.
