CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig said Tuesday that it is possible Judge Juan Merchan could imminently dismiss President-elect Donald Trump’s New York criminal case.
Merchan on Nov. 12 granted a joint request by prosecutors and defense attorneys to pause all deadlines in the case until Tuesday, delaying his decision on Trump’s motion to toss the verdict based on presidential immunity. Honig, on “CNN News Central,” said that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has suggested that it agrees with Trump’s legal team that Merchan should close the case now that Trump has been elected president.
WATCH:
“So the first thing we‘re going to do is hear from the Manhattan DA. They’re going to take one of two tacks. Either they’re going to say, ‘We agree with Donald Trump that because he’s now the president-elect, this case is over.’ That‘s option one,” Honig said. “Option two is the Manhattan DA’s case may say, ‘We disagree with Donald Trump. Even though he is president-elect, we want to proceed forward.’ In that case, it’ll go to Judge Merchan. He’ll decide whether the case is over because Trump is president-elect or whether the case carries on.”
“If it carries on, then Judge Merchan is going to decide the immunity ruling. And then, depending how that comes out, maybe proceed to sentencing. But there’s a lot of ifs there, the Manhattan DA signaled in its submission last week,” he added. “It sounded like they tended to view it the way that Donald Trump’s team views it, which is because he’s the president-elect, it’s now over. But we’ll see for sure today where the DA stands.”
CNN anchor John Berman asked Honig if the case “could be done by close of business” Tuesday.
“It could be. If the DA puts in a filing with the judge saying, ‘We agree with Donald Trump’s team because he’s president elect, this case is over.’ Then Judge Merchan will review that,” Honig answered. “If he agrees with both parties, he could say, ‘That’s it, case closed. We’re not getting to the immunity ruling. We’re not doing sentencing.’ That is a real possibility, John.”
A jury convicted Trump in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Honig previously suggested that Merchan might vacate the verdict due to the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling as certain evidence in Trump’s trial potentially breached it.
“The problem, though, from the prosecutor’s point of view, is some of the evidence that they introduced at trial did relate to conversations Trump had while in the White House,” he said. “Hope Hicks was a key witness about conversations she had when she was communications director. The immunity decision came out after that trial, but it’s still the law of the land.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.