Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump Gets NEWS HE FEARED from Judge on his SENTENCING

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

Judge Merchan in New York has just informed Trump and his lawyers that he’s full steam ahead to impose criminal sentencing on Trump on 18 September at 10 am, and Trump’s efforts to get the Supreme Court to stop it have failed as well. Michael Popok ties it all together on his latest hot take. Go to https://joindeleteme.com/LEGALAF and use promo code LEGALAF for 20% off. Visit https://meidastouch.com for more!" Join the Legal AF Patreon: https://Patreon.com/LegalAF Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The dog days of summer don't affect criminal court judges responsible for Donald Trump's matters. Now we got a new order from Judge Mershon. Fresh on the heels of a new order from, or orders from Judge Chutkin in the D.C. election interference case. These cases are awake. They are alive. And Judge Mershon has now told the world or particularly the lawyers for the Manhattan DA and for Donald Trump in no uncertain terms that he is going forward with the imposition of sentence, criminal sentencing of Donald Trump on the 18th of September come hell or high water with no exception and no extensions.

And that is now in a new order that we've just received from the judge dated August 5th of 2024. That's the way we do things in New York with letters. Lawyers write letters to the judge asking pretty please if motions can be allowed or if they can file briefs or they can have what's called a reply brief and the judges write back letters. That's the way we do it. It ends up all on the docket. Now we've got a docketed order in that way. Why did this order come up today and why did the judge feel it necessary to tell the world he's going forward on a September 18th imposition of sentence? I think it has two things. It has to do with two things.

One, Donald Trump's lawyers have filed, and it's now fully briefed, a request that the judge recuse himself of being disqualified for the third time on no new information or facts, just because, for instance, the judges made a $15 donation to Joe Biden like five years ago, and his daughter works for Democratic causes as a fundraiser. So what?

That's basically what the judge said. At the same time, they moved on the Trump side to vacate the conviction on the grounds of Trump versus the United States, the July 1st decision by the United States Supreme Court saying it's immunity, even though the whole of the activities related to Stormy Daniels and the hush money cover-up and the business record fraud really happened before he was even elected president while he was candidate Trump. That's why he did the hush money cover-up. He wanted to cover it up from the American people in order to get elected president against Hillary Clinton.

Put that aside for a minute. The judge and the abundance of caution has allowed the parties to have full briefing. They have fully briefed the issue of whether immunity applies or not. Trump got two briefs, because that's what happens when you're the movement. You get an opening brief, you get a reply brief.

And in the middle, you got the Manhattan DA that said, there's no immunity. It's not applied here. At best, it would relate to some evidence that was presented about Donald Trump after he became president, but none of that was outcome dispositive for the jury and the conviction should stand. And that's going to be the winning argument, by the way. And I believe that's going to be affirmed by the First Department Court of Appeals or the First Department Appellate Division for New York, which is the first level appellate court before you get to the highest court. That all briefing went on. That's one circle we got to keep an eye on. The second circle we got to keep an eye on is at or about the same time in the last week or so, Donald Trump's lawyers

wanted to disqualify Mershon again after the case is already over because of information they've had forever about the relationship between him and his daughter. Okay, that's gonna also be a loser. And they've asked for a reply brief related to that. And the judge in this order did a couple of things. He said, first of all, I'm not giving you a reply brief on the motion to recuse or disqualify. It won't be helpful. I don't need it. I see what you're going to do and let me just cut to the chase. He's going to deny the motion to disqualify and be recused. He did it three other times. He's going to do it again and the appellate court's going to back him up. And he said, while

we're here in this order, I'm going to read from it in a minute, I'm also, let me just tell you, dates are going to stick. I am going to issue the order on your motion to recuse on August 11th. Put that on your calendar, come back to the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF, we will report in real time on the August 11th decision by the judge to deny the motion to disqualify. And the judge says, in the meantime, I'm going to render a decision about immunity that you've raised based on all the briefing that you've done.

I'm going to do that on the 16th of September. And if necessary, I'll see you two days later for the imposition of sentencing. Now the judge is trying to be very sober here. He's saying, well, you could win on your immunity, and if you win on the 16th, I won't need to hold a sentencing hearing on the 18th. That's not the way I read this order. The way I read this order is you're going to lose the the motion to recuse and I don't need a reply brief. You're gonna lose on your immunity argument that you're immune from prosecution related to things that happened when you weren't even president, related to the Stormy Daniels Sex Act and the payments

related to it and the business fraud related to that. And I'll see you on the 18th. Keep your calendars open. I'm imposing sentence. Let me read from the order itself now that you have sort of the background it'll make more sense. Ever wonder how much of your personal data is out there on the internet for anyone to see? More than you think.

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checkout. That's joindeleteeme.com legal AF code Legal AF. So the judge says as a result of the immunity briefing about motions to vacate, which he allowed, he says on page one, as a result, the original sentencing date, because remember there was an original sentencing date, it was supposed to be July the 11th, July the 11th, 2024, which is like right around the convention, was rescheduled to September 18th, 2024, and the matter was put down for decision for September the 6th of 2024. And then they said that subsequently there was a request for reply briefs, which the court granted. And then the judge says says the cover email accompanying the twenty page reply by Mr Trump indicated that the

Transmittal was also accompanied by a pre motion letter. See that's that letter practice I told you about earlier in New York seeking this court's recusal. That means this qualification due to changed circumstances. Further, the letter asked the court to resolve that motion for recusal prior to resolving the immunity decision, immunity motion. And this is a little bit of a quirk of New York practice I'll teach here. They asked that the pre-motion letter be actually treated as the motion in the brief. Got to skip a

step, collapse it. And then the people, which is the Manhattan DA's office, responded the letter and said, you can treat our letter as the opposition brief. And then the defendant asked for one more bite at the apple about recusal for the third time in this case. And the judge denied that. Says the defendant has now requested a one week to file a reply to the people's response,

which was done on August the 1st, that request is denied. This court does not believe such a reply is necessary or helpful at this stage of the proceedings. This is all about disqualification. The court went on to say that as a result of Trump's two recent filings and his request that the motion for recusal be resolved prior to the decision about immunity and whether it applies or not, the court hereby changes the calendar. So here's this is this is how he sequenced

everything for it to make a lot of sense. He said first the decision on the motion for recusal, that means disqualification, will be handed down on August 11th. Get ready, come back to Midas Touch Legal AF for that. The decision on the 330 motion, which is the immunity motion to vacate the 34 count felony conviction, come back. I'm gonna issue that on September the 16th, if still necessary, he said.

The reason he put if still necessary because he's giving them a sliver of hope. I mean, it's like very slim, that he's going to grant the disqualification and get out of the case. After the verdict, after all of the post judgment and verdict practice, it's not happening. But he gives them a little bit of hope.

It's like ice and winter. Here's if still necessary. Please note the judge ends the order, the letter with. Please note the court appearance schedule for September 18th at 10 a.m. remains unchanged. See you there. We will proceed on that date and time to the imposition of sentence or other proceedings as appropriate. That's again a little bit of waffle room and other proceedings as appropriate. If somehow he were to grant immunity and throw

out the convictions, there wouldn't be a need for sentencing. Not happening. And then he goes on to say, please keep these dates in mind if you still wish to file a pre-sentence recommendation. In other words, I'm going forward on the 18th, unless I grant your immunity decision, which I'm not,

unless I grant your recusal decision, which I'm not. So if you want to guide me on the proper sentence, you better send in Trump a pre-sentencing memorandum and the people too. And I'll take a look at that along with the probation or parole department for the state that's going to put together its own package and then the judge kind of puts it all together and makes his own fundamental decision about sentencing. That's what's going down on the 18th of September with these other markers of August 11th we're going to get an order on the motion for recusal and September 16th we're going

to get one on the immunity decision. And that's what we're going to have to follow here on Legal AF our podcast at the intersection of law and politics every Wednesday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern time and then just pick it up on all audio podcast platforms plug in Legal AF. I know this court, I practice in this court, I practice at the appellate division, I know the procedure that's why I'm bringing it to you the only way I know how. Unfiltered, unplugged, right? As a practicing lawyer in these courts at the intersection of law and politics. And we'll continue to follow the next moves. And let me tell you about the Supreme Court issue that I started the hot take week. I teased this hot take with. The Supreme Court yesterday, in a little covered, although I got a hot take going up, a little covered decision,

the Attorney General of Missouri a couple of months ago brought a case against the state of New York, what's called an original jurisdiction case that puts it right before the United States Supreme Court, not as an appellate court but as a trial court. It only happens when it's state v state or state versus a country and it ends up with the trial court being played by the Supreme Court. Very rare, very rare indeed. And one of the things the attorney general asked for for Missouri, who's a Trumper, who's in the middle of a primary

to try to win a primary against another Trumper to be the attorney general, which is coming up this week. He said he wanted the court, the Supreme Court, to stop the sentencing of Donald Trump. Stop the gag order, stop the sentencing, overturn the order. And the Supreme Court, at least seven of them, except for Alito and Thomas, said, yeah, we're not doing that. We're not granting the petition.

We're not granting the complaint dismissed. In other words, don't come to us for a trial on this issue because there's not going to be a trial on this issue. Two of the judges, Alito and Thomas, of course, said that they would grant the complaint, but they wouldn't have stopped the sentencing. So there's a 9-0, 9-0 for the Supreme Court that said, yeah, we're not stopping the sentencing of Donald Trump in New York for those crimes. We might have allowed the lawsuit.

We think some of the things are interesting. That's only two of the nine. But nine of them said, we're not doing an injunction to stay the lawsuit. We think some of the things are interesting. That's only two of the nine. But nine of them said, we're not doing an injunction to stay the matter. And that's what, so that was a bad couple of days for Donald Trump. Supreme Court said, nah, it's all right. Go ahead, go get sentenced. And now Judge Mershon saying, yeah, see you on the 18th of September for sentencing. We'll continue to follow it all. Might as touch Legal AF. I'm Michael Popak. Until my next hot take, until my next Legal AF, Michael Popak reporting. know and we discuss every day on Legal AF. Exclusive content you won't find anywhere else, all for the price of a couple of cups of coffee. Join us at patreon.com slash legal

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