Q&A – Overturning Trump’s Conviction in the Stormy Daniels Case
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Submitted via talkback: I want to thank you so much for your morning program where I know I hear the truth. I'm so tired of hearing President Trump being called a felon. I'm wondering, Brian, if you have any idea where he is in having that all overturned, so we don't have to hear people say any longer that, oh, we have a felon in the White House.
Bottom Line: Well, I do, and I don’t. As in I do know where we stand in the legal process pertaining to President Trump’s effort to have his conviction overturned in the New York state case pertaining to the payment for a violated non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election cycle. I don’t have guidance as to a timetable for when there may be resolution to the matter.
While the conviction came down on May 30th of last year, the next action in the case didn’t take place until earlier this year, when on January 10th – just ten days prior to President Trump being sworn in once again as president of the United States, the presiding judge sentenced Trump to an unconditional discharge – meaning that the case was closed and effectively the “punishment” for Trump in this case was the process, but also yes – the blemish of being a “convicted felon”. A term that, as you’ve noted, some will still use.
Since the January 10th “sentence” completed the case, there have been two developments. The first was on January 29th when President Trump’s team filed a notice of appeal, seeking to overturn the conviction. The second was on June 11th when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit heard the argument from Trump’s legal team that the appeals process should be moved from state courts in New York to the federal court system. As was stated by Trump’s attorney in the appeal: The federal officer is entitled to a federal forum, not to have those arguments heard in state court. And if that's true for a normal federal officer in a normal criminal prosecution, it certainly ought to be true for the president of the United States and for what we can all recognize is an anomalous one of its kind prosecution. The state of New York countered with the argument: After sentencing, removal is no longer available. In other words, the argument is that the case would have had to have been moved to the federal court system prior to sentencing, but after sentencing only state courts have jurisdiction to hear an appeal.
That’s interesting in part because the merits of whether it should be moved to a federal court wasn’t the focus of the argument, but rather a process argument, is what was made. Notably, the payments that were made by then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen took place while Trump was already president and the timing of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, last year – which effectively ended the three other cases that were being attempted against him – potentially buttresses his argument that the case was unconstitutionally brought against him in the first place (let alone numerous arguments that can be made about the way the trial was conducted that arguably lacked proper process).
So that’s where we stand. We’re waiting for the Second Circuit Court to issue a decision on the appeal they heard last month. A couple of points about this. There’s no firm timetable for next steps, as the court can take its time before rendering a decision on the appeal. Historically, the Second Circuit has taken twelve months from the time they receive a notice of appeal, until the time they render a decision. If they were to stick to their typical timetable, that would mean we may not hear anything until January. Regardless of when they make a decision, the next steps would look like this.
- The court moves the case to federal court where Trump’s team would argue for a dismissal of the case (or if that’s denied a vacated conviction)
- The court denies the motion and the Trump team appeals to the United States Supreme Court – where any number of possibilities would exist. The court could choose to deny to hear the appeal leaving the conviction in place. The court could issue a dismissal of the case, or the court could take up the case and further define presidential immunity as it applies to state cases.
In other words, be prepared for this to take about another six months at a minimum with the potential for this to play out over the next couple of years based upon what happens from here. In the meantime, you can continue to take solace in the fact that Trump is president of the United States which was the ultimate verdict issued by the largest jury on earth.