Trump’s September 18 hush-money sentencing has only one remaining hurdle
Former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday.
Three was not the charm for Donald Trump, whose hush-money judge on Wednesday declined — for the third time — the former president’s demand that he recuse himself from the case.
In a three-page decision, Justice Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court said he rejected Trump’s “repetition of stale and unsubstantiated claims” and would not step down.
“Defendant has provided nothing new for this court to consider,” the judge wrote.
The decision leaves one remaining hurdle to Trump’s September 18 sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Merchan has yet to decide whether the hush-money case should be retried or tossed in its entirety over the US Supreme Court’s July 1 opinion that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts and that such acts cannot be used as evidence against them.
Former Manhattan judges and prosecutors have told Business Insider that they do not expect Trump’s immunity challenge to derail his sentencing because any official-act evidence used by prosecutors would have been inconsequential to the verdict.
Merchan has said he will decide Trump’s immunity challenge in a written decision on September 16, just two days before the sentencing date.
Manhattan prosecutors contend the court’s decision has no bearing on the hush-money case because the charges depended on personal conduct, not official acts.
A Manhattan jury found that during Trump’s first year in office, he conspired with other Trump Organization executives to falsify a series of checks and invoices to hide a 2016 hush-money payment to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels. The money ensured Daniels’ silence just 11 days before Trump was elected president.
Trump faces anywhere from zero to four years in prison, though any incarceration sentence would almost certainly be stayed pending appeal.
Merchan’s decision Wednesday displayed an apparent impatience over his third rejection of Trump’s claims that he needed to step down because his daughter, Loren Merchan, is a political consultant whose Chicago firm has handled the accounts of Vice President Kamala Harris and other top Democrats.
“As has been the standard throughout the pendency of this case, this court will continue to base its rulings on the evidence and the law, without fear or favor, casting aside undue influence,” Merchan wrote.
“Counsel has merely repeated arguments that have already been denied by this and higher courts,” he added. “Defense Counsel’s reliance, and apparent citation to his own prior affirmation, rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims, is unavailing. As such, Defendant’s motion is again denied.”
New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics issued an opinion in May 2023 finding no conflict of interest and saying it found no overlap between the hush-money case and Loren Merchan’s work at Authentic.
Two weeks ago, the Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee — as part of its investigation into what it terms “politicized prosecutions — asked Authentic and Loren Merchan to turn over documents relating to the Harris campaign and all communications with clients that involved mentions of the hush-money case.
On Tuesday, Authentic CEO Mike Nellis posted a copy of the company’s response letter to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the committee’s chair. The letter said: “Authentic had no role, involvement, or influence whatsoever in those judicial proceedings, and the Committee’s insinuations to the contrary have caused and continue to cause significant harm to Authentic and its employees.”
