... Donald Trump's ability to quickly move past his criminal cases as president-elect will get an early test in New York later this month.
In May, a New York state jury found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for concealing a $130,000 payment to former adult-film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg alleged the payment was part of a scheme to influence the 2016 election by keeping tabloid stories from being published.
Trump's lawyers are expected to move to call off his sentencing in the so-called hush-money case, set for Nov. 26, and toss out the verdict now that he is president-elect. The 78-year-old faces as long as four years in prison for falsifying business records.
It will be up to Justice Juan Merchan to decide what happens next. And even before he addresses the sentencing, he faces a self-imposed Nov. 12 deadline to rule on Trump's outstanding request to throw out the case as a result of the US Supreme Court's landmark ruling on presidential immunity.
"Right now we're in uncharted territory," said Robert Tsigler, a criminal defense lawyer based in Manhattan who isn't involved in the case. "This has never happened before, so the exact path is very difficult to predict."
The New York matter is one of four prosecutions Trump had to contend with during his campaign to return to the White House, including two federal cases, all of which now face uncertain futures given the vast powers of the US presidency. ...
