The Manhattan judge who presided over the business records trial that resulted in the conviction of President-elect Donald Trump on 34 felony counts will rule by next week about whether to toss the conviction, CNN reported.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has given himself a deadline of Nov. 12 to set aside or let stand the conviction in the aftermath of Trump winning the election and the Supreme Court's ruling over the summer on presidential immunity, according to the report.
Merchan twice delayed sentencing in the case until after the election. If Merchan rules to let the conviction stand, Trump is scheduled for sentencing Nov. 26. Trump faces up to four years in prison. If that is Merchan's ruling, Trump's legal team is prepared to pounce, according to CNN.
"I'm told that his legal team is going to try to make sure that sentencing never happens," CNN’s Paula Reid reported. "Here they're going to argue to the judge that the sentencing should never happen because, now that Trump is president-elect, they will say that he is entitled to the same constitutional protections as a sitting president and should be protected from state actors."
A New York jury in May found Trump guilty for a business record violation tied to 2017 payments to a lawyer that he called legal expenses.
Even if Merchan lets the conviction stand, legal experts have agreed Trump would not face prison time, election winner or not.
"Merchan doesn't have the stomach to imprison a former president or president-elect," former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the New York Post. "Now that Trump has won, his criminal problems go away."