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The Executive Branch Must Act Within Its Authority

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Published in The Post Newspaper September 15, 2024 Last week, New York judge Juan Merchan postponed the sentencing of Donald Trump on 34 felony charges until after the November general election. This is the second time he's postponed sentencing and this time he claims it's because he doesn't want to have the sentence impact the presidential election. "Really?" As we said in our May 26th column, "It appears the left understands they may not beat Trump in November. So, they have concocted a new ploy, charging him with highly questionable crimes to put him in jail …" The problem is, every time they took Trump to court it backfired on them. Millions of dollars flowed into his campaign and the number of his supporters grew astronomically. With three of the four lawfare prosecutions folding or not happening before the November election and with the public seeing their efforts as election interference, the progressive Democrats are seeing their plans turning to dust. Their only hope was the New York state case. The judge made comments before the trial began that Trump was guilty. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA ran for office on the promise to "get Trump." The judge's daughter, associated with the Harris campaign, has raked in millions of dollars as a result of this trial. It was to be a slam dunk for the Democrat's plans even though, according to legal experts, many of the decisions made by the judge make it highly likely that the guilty verdicts will be thrown out during the appeal process but not before the November election. As a strictly legal matter, there's no good reason to delay Trump's sentencing but Judge Merchan has the right to make such a decision. Prosecutors left the judge out on a limb when several weeks ago they said they wouldn't oppose efforts to delay the sentencing. That was a powerful signal to the judge, because it's first and foremost the responsibility of prosecutors to ensure that criminal defendants are sentenced in a timely manner. If Trump were to be sentenced to do jail time, it is a safe bet the U.S. Supreme Court would promptly take the case on appeal and highly likely they would -- based upon questionable decisions and statements made by the judge -- overturn the convictions. If that were to happen it would defeat the progressive Democrat's purpose in bringing the case in the first place – in order to label the former president as a convicted felon sentenced to jail. Many contend this case -- as well as the others -- was brought for political purposes. Judge Merchan knows sentencing Trump before the election is fraught with perils for his friends on the left. The Democrats miscalculated that the lawsuits against Trump would doom his chances of being reelected. The result has been the exact opposite. So, Merchan, depending upon how he plans to sentence Trump, is in an untenable position: proceed with sentencing and its possible blowback in reelecting Trump or postponing the sentencing until after the election. He chose the latter.
	About the Authors and Columnists 2024 Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius have written over 275 guest columns and editorials over the last ten years and continue to do so. Bill lives in Galveston, Texas and Mark in St. Georges, Utah. Both ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14, since then they have become close friends and colleagues.
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