Prosecutors have proposed to a New York judge that Donald Trump might be spared prison time following his conviction on charges of paying hush money to a porn star, considering his recent victory in the US presidential election.
However, they remain opposed to dismissing the case.
In a court filing made public on Tuesday, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office urged Justice Juan Merchan to deny the Republican businessman-turned-politicians’ request to throw out the case so it does not hang over him and impede his ability to govern once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Noting that many of Trump’s concerns involve the possibility that he could be incarcerated, prosecutors noted that there is no requirement that Merchan sentence him to prison – and said the judge could conclude that presidential immunity from prosecution would require a non-incarceration sentence.
“Such a constitutional limitation on the range of available sentences would further diminish any impact on defendant’s presidential decision-making without going so far as to discard the indictment and jury verdict altogether,” prosecutors wrote.
Merchan has not said when he will rule on Trump’s bid for dismissal.
Trump has called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to harm his 2024 campaign. In a statement on Tuesday, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “Today’s filing by the Manhattan DA is a pathetic attempt to salvage the remains of an unconstitutional and politically motivated hoax.”
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
