Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., said this week that President-elect Donald Trump will need to show remorse if he wants to receive a pardon in his legal documents case.
"There is a pardoning process in the state of New York. It is lengthy," Hochul told reporters on Wednesday. "It requires a couple of elements. One is remorse."
Hochul said she will not view Trump's case any differently than others.
"No one will be treated any better, or any worse, by me when I make those life-altering decisions as we're looking at petitions that are coming in throughout the year," she said. "So, no one gets extra favors, no one gets treated worse."
Judge Juan Merchan on Monday ruled that Trump is not eligible to have his case dismissed, arguing that the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision does not apply to the case of documents and saying it was related to "entirely to unofficial conduct" and "poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch."
Prosecutors have indicated they are open to delaying sentencing until Trump leaves the White House, but say the yet-to-be-determined sentence from Merchan should stand.
Not all on the Democrat side are as quick to judge Trump's guilt. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., used his first ever post on Trump's Truth Social platform to call for a pardon.
"The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bulls***t, and pardons are appropriate," Fetterman wrote. "Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division."
In May, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts related to the alleged falsifying of business records by referring to payments to attorney Michael Cohen as a "legal expense." Cohen was allegedly paying adult entertainer Stormy Daniels to conceal a relationship with Trump during the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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