Republican candidate Donald Trump scored another major victory on Friday after his sentencing in New York was postponed until after the US presidential election.
Convicted of criminal charges at the end of May in New York, the former president will not be sentenced until November 26, three weeks after the election.
The septuagenarian welcomed this postponement, decided by a judge, assuring that he should now benefit from a dismissal in this case of concealed payments to a pornographic actress during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“The case should be closed,” he said on his Truth Social platform, claiming to have “done nothing wrong.”
The former president’s lawyers had requested a new delay following a resounding decision by the US Supreme Court, with a conservative majority, which broadened the scope of presidential criminal immunity.
Prison possible, but very unlikely
At the end of a historic trial, the first criminal trial for a former president of the United States, Donald Trump was found guilty at the end of May of 34 offenses of falsifying accounting documents, intended to hide, just before his victory in the 2016 presidential election, a payment of 130,000 dollars to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels.
The money was paid to her to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she said she had with him in 2006, which he has always denied.
Donald Trump is facing criminal charges in three other cases, but no further trials will take place before the presidential election.
Friday’s ruling means American voters will not experience the Republican candidate’s punishment when they go to the polls or vote by mail.
In the hidden payments case, Donald Trump theoretically faces a maximum sentence of a prison sentence, but many experts believe it is more likely that the judge will hand down an alternative sentence to prison, such as a suspended sentence.
“Witch Hunts”
The decision came just minutes after Donald Trump gave a rambling speech about his legal troubles. He had called reporters to a news conference at Trump Tower in New York for no particular reason.
Sporting his traditional red tie, he spoke in a jumble about his civil trial for sexual assault and his criminal conviction: “witch hunts” to prevent him from being elected, according to him. Without taking a single question from the press, the septuagenarian, seeming particularly annoyed, also attacked his lawyers, seated around him staring into space, saying he was “disappointed” with their work.
It was only after 40 minutes of this singular tirade that the Republican began to mention his rival Kamala Harris, assuring that he was “well ahead” in the polls for the presidential election on November 5.
Opinion polls are much more nuanced on this question, placing the two candidates neck and neck for the time being.
After the speech, the Republican is set to head to North Carolina, one of the most contested states in the presidential race, where the first mail-in ballots were delayed by a judge’s decision. He will address a powerful police union.
The former president blames Joe Biden and the vice president for a crime wave linked to illegal immigration, which statistics deny.
Security and immigration remain subjects on which Kamala Harris lacks credibility, according to several polls.
Preparation for the debate
The Democrat’s campaign sought to respond Friday by releasing a letter of support signed by police officers. “In November, Americans will have to choose between someone who has spent his life enforcing our laws and someone who has been convicted of breaking them,” the message read, a reference to the Democrat’s former career as a prosecutor and her opponent’s criminal conviction in New York.
Donald Trump, who is facing several other charges, including trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election, will hold a campaign rally on Saturday in Wisconsin, another highly contested state in the indirect universal suffrage election.
Her rival set up camp in Pennsylvania on Thursday to prepare for the debate with her Republican opponent, organized Tuesday by ABC in Philadelphia.
The vice president, who has given only one interview since entering the race, also gave a radio interview Friday, calling for “turning the page on the Trump era.”
Big money
According to media reports, she is expected to make a few public appearances before the televised debate, breaking with Joe Biden’s strategy of disappearing from the radar for several days to prepare for his June confrontation with Donald Trump, during which he completely lost his footing.
Kamala Harris will be able to rely on a copious war chest, her campaign team having announced having raised $361 million in August, “three times more” than the opposing camp, she assures. The Democrat has a reserve of fresh money of $404 million, less than two months before an election that is causing pharaonic spending on both sides, particularly on electoral advertising.
Donald Trump’s campaign team had reported $295 million immediately available.