New York Judge Juan Merchan had several other options beyond denying President-elect Donald Trump's call to dismiss his business records case, retired Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Tuesday.
"Normally when the government asks to delay a case like that, particularly a government that's been very aggressive about prosecuting a case, the judge will go along with it," Napolitano told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "He's got a couple of options. He could sentence Trump and suspend the sentence. He could sentence him to something that isn't even a wrist slap. He could dismiss the case. He could hold it in abeyance for four years."
But at the same time, nobody knows if Merchan will still be on the bench in four years, or if Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg will be reelected, he said.
"I can't predict what's going to happen because this has never happened before in history so there's no precedent to guide those of us who examine these things and express opinions," Napolitano added.
Meanwhile, with Trump about to become president, "this thing in New York cannot and should not interfere with his presidency," said Napolitano.
"The Supreme Court has recognized that, not in the immunity case, but in other cases, he cannot go to jail while he's president," he said, adding that Trump can't be punished by a state or federal court while he's in office.
However, Napolitano said that he does believe Merchan is doing what the law is telling him to do.
"This is a very unusual situation that he's in," said Napolitano. "I don't believe that anything that was immunized by the Supreme Court was a critical part of the evidence against Trump. Having said that, I think the case was garbage and it shouldn't have been prosecuted."
But the case, which involved the records kept on payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, was based on New York law that led to Trump's conviction of mismanaging corporate books.
But even though Trump has been convicted, he's not yet sentenced, meaning that conviction isn't final, said Napolitano.
"After the conviction and before the election, the Supreme Court came down with its immunity decision," he said. "The immunity decision says if a president engages in behavior core to the presidency, that which is articulated in the Constitution or official, that which the statutes tell him to do, it cannot form the basis of any criminal behavior."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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