OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Friday that Judge Juan Merchan is unlikely to ever sentence President-elect Donald Trump, despite his conviction in New York, an opinion that isn’t going to sit well with Democrats.
On Friday, Merchan issued an order indefinitely postponing Trump’s sentencing, originally scheduled for Tuesday. The judge granted the defense until December 2 to file a motion to dismiss the case and instructed prosecutors to respond by December 9. Speaking on CNN News Central, Honig predicted that the sentencing would never occur, suggesting that the case would eventually “disappear.”
“It means that the sentencing is on hold indefinitely and quite possibly for more than that, probably never to actually happen, because what they have to do before that is litigate the whole issue of, is Donald Trump immune? Can a state-level prosecution proceed against him while he’s president-elect and then president?” Honig said.
“I’m gonna spoil the bottom line here: He’s not going to get sentenced on this case. He’s not going to get sentenced before he becomes president. He’s not going to get sentenced while he’s president,” Honig continued.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg suggested in a Tuesday filing to delay the remaining proceedings of the case until Trump’s term concludes in 2029. But Honig and other legal experts don’t believe that is a realistic expectation.
“And [Bragg] earlier this week actually floated the possibility — they said, ‘We may want to hold open the option of sentencing him after he’s done his second term,’ meaning in 2029. That is not going to happen,” he said.
“That is a ridiculous request legally and practically. So essentially, we’re playing out the string here. I think, eventually, this case will go away. It’s just a question of what the niceties will be down the stretch,” Honig predicted.
WATCH:
The president-elect’s defense attorneys argued on Tuesday that Merchan must dismiss the case immediately “in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential election.”
But MSNBC legal analyst Kristy Greenberg said Friday she “would be shocked” if Merchan actually tosses out the case.
“There’s no basis for that. Nothing I’ve seen in the very short submission already from the defense cites to any legal authority suggesting that that should be the proper outcome to just toss a jury’s verdict because now Trump is going to be president again,” Greenberg said, per the Daily Caller.
“I expect that Judge Merchan will deny that, but I do think that staying the proceedings is where we will be, and that this sentencing won’t take place until after his term is concluded,” she added.
On Friday, Merchan granted Trump’s legal team an opportunity to argue that the conviction should be overturned in light of his election victory, essentially pausing sentencing in the ‘hush money’ case indefinitely.
Merchan did not set a new sentencing date in his one-page order issued Friday, which canceled the sentencing hearing originally scheduled for next week.
“In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned,” said Steven Cheung, Trump’s Communications Director. “President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases.”
“All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again,” he added.
The Washington Post reported that Judge Juan Merchan is permitting Trump’s legal team to argue for the conviction to be overturned, citing the potential interference it could cause with his ability to fulfill his duties as president following his re-election.
“Just as a sitting President is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as President-elect,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a letter filed this week.