As we wrote earlier, New York Judge Juan Merchan took the world by surprise on Friday, with his ruling to hand down a sentence for President-elect Donald Trump in his Manhattan business records fraud case–less than two weeks before the inauguration on Jan. 20.
While sharing the news, my colleague Susie Moore caught everyone up on the case:
In early May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records. Since then, there has been significant legal maneuvering, with multiple post-trial motions aimed at overturning the verdict and/or delaying the sentencing, if not outright dismissing the case on grounds of presidential immunity and/or in light of Trump’s reelection. Merchan’s rulings on the post-trial matters, like many of them ahead of and during the trial, have largely not favored Trump.
In a Friday ruling, Merchan indicated…
