all right, well, ten days, ten days now, separate us from historic moment in America when Donald Trump takes office once again on January 20th. >> But this time he’ll be the first convicted criminal to become president. That conviction, it officially became formal today when he was sentenced in the hush money case out of New York. Judge
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Juan merchan ordering no prison time, no fine, no probationary period. Essentially, no punishment. But judge merchan did deliver a stern warning and message explaining the only thing stopping him from punishing trump are the legal protections from the presidency. >> Ordinary citizens do not receive those legal protections. It is the office of the president that bestows those far reaching protections to the office holder. And it
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was the citizenry of this nation that recently decided that you should once again receive the benefits of those protections, which include, among other things, the supremacy clause and presidential immunity. >> The judge may have had the last word in the courtroom, but trump did get his chance to say his piece, too, and he leaned into his grievances. >> It’s been a political witch hunt. It was done to damage my reputation so that I would lose
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the election. And obviously that didn’t work with me. >> Now, retired New York judge George Grasso, who was in court today, and former trump attorney Tim parlatore. Glad to have both of you here. I’ll begin with you, your honor. Judge merchan made a point to emphasize the impact of the office of the presidency on his decision. But for that election, knowing that he is a first time offender, so to speak, would he have faced a very different kind of punishment?
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>> 100%? >> I think he could have easily been looking at what we would call a split sentence, something like 30 days jail and three years probation at a minimum probation. He was convicted of 34 separate felony counts, and I was in the courtroom every day. I think there was abundant evidence. Having said that, I think judge merchan did the right thing here. He threaded the needle.
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Unconditional discharge was the only possible sentence that would survive the type of challenge that went to the supreme court. As a matter of fact, it was cited in the brief supreme court decision not to stay the sentencing. The fact that the judge telegraphed there would be an unconditional discharge. So on the one hand, and I also disagree with the narrative that there’s no consequence here. I think it’s a severe consequence to be a convicted felon for anyone, including a president elect, and suing the president to be.
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But the actual sentence was designed not to interfere with the duties of the president. So the judge had a tough job, and I think he threaded the needle. >> Well, Tim, as you know, yes, there is still a social stigma around being a convicted felon, but he’s not the average person who now is going to be precluded from getting a certain job of choice. He will be the president of the united States. And yet he is angry, frankly, about the being sentenced, being prosecuted in
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general. He will appeal. What is the likelihood of his ability to succeed on that appeal, where he is suggesting that they should not have been able to pursue a state prosecution based on a federal violation of law in terms of that catch and kill election interference, you know, that is an interesting argument. >> And really, it kind of goes to whether the judge properly instructed the the jury on the federal elections law, you know, can they do that type of prosecution? Yes, they can. But
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if you’re going to say that it’s in furtherance of that federal crime, you have to instruct the jury more fully on that crime. And also you have to present more evidence, you know, remember, there was an expert witness who was disallowed, who would have been able to explain the aspects of the federal election law to the jury and and what the procedures were, and the fact that in this case, that type of that payment, the timing of it wouldn’t have been reported to the fec until after the election happened. And so that
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all that is important, I think that that is something that the appellate division is going to look at pretty hard. >> I think they will continue to. And trump has made no qualms about actually pursuing who will actually do it. We don’t know. Todd Blanche his attorney here is likely to be a part of the doj. The number two position. But judge Grasso, I mean, you have been in court, as you’ve said throughout the trial, he showed no remorse today during that hearing, which was a zoom hearing, he did speak about the political witch hunt. A lot of it was his greatest hits. Judge merchan did not respond. And there had
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been obviously, Mershon had been the target of a lot of the ire of trump. What did you make of the decorum that was on display by the judge in this instance? >> As you said, I was at every day of the trial, I think judge merchan Juan merchan has been the utmost professional. And by the way, I’ve never met him previously. The only time I saw him in action was in this particular trial. And in terms of bending over backwards, to be fair to President-Elect
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trump, he could have judge merchan very well could have proceeded with sentencing on July 11th. Yes, there was the supreme court immunity decision. And yes, it was expected that the defense would vehemently request an opportunity to be heard on that. But judge merchan could have went to sentencing, and it wouldn’t have really been even the supreme court issue at that time, because because he was in president elect and he could have hit him, sentenced him with that split sentence. But
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what judge Mershon did every step of the way, starting with adjourning it to September, and then in the heat of the election, saying, you know what, I’m not going to do this until after the election. All of that was bending over backwards in deference to the defendant. Obviously. Uh, defendant trump gives judge merchan credit for nothing. And, you know, dirty judge, crooked judge. But from what I’ve seen and with the specific reasons I gave you, I
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think judge merchan couldn’t have been fairer. And some might say he was fair to a fault, not me. I think he did the right thing. >> Well, let me ask you and give you the quick final word here in terms of what happens next. Who is going to oversee this appeal? And do you think that the principle behind trump’s decision to keep protesting this is sound? >> I do think that there’s a good ground for an appeal. And who’s going to do it? Susan necklace. You know, she’s a phenomenal attorney, a great appellate attorney. She’s been on this case throughout. And even though the other two
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attorneys are going to go work in the doj, he already has somebody in place that’s fully familiar and ready to go. >> We’ll see how it all unfolds. This is far from over on the appellate side. Good to