A Yale Law professor suggests another strategy for alumni. President Donald Trump’s legal team The US could move to limit the impact of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case on the 2024 presidential election after a New York jury found the former president guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
In a newly created podcast titled straight down the middleYale Law professor Jed Rubenfeld looks at the legal options left for Trump’s defense team following the jury’s verdict, as well as the appeals process that will soon begin.
The most obvious path for Trump’s legal team in attempting to challenge the conviction is to appeal through the New York appeals court system, with a view to ultimately filing an appeal to the Supreme Court. Supreme Court – Rubenfeld argued that the process would take years to complete and could result in “irreparable harm.”
“Of course that would take years, and that’s the problem,” Rubenfeld, a constitutional law professor, said on his podcast. “Why is that a problem? It’s a problem because the election will have taken place, and if this conviction is unlawful and unconstitutional, it could have an impact on that election.”
Former Attorney General Bill Barr predicts Trump’s criminal charges will ‘be dropped’
Left to right: Judge Juan Merchan, former President Donald Trump and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. (Getty Images, AP Images)
Pointing to polls that suggest a “substantial number” of American voters say they would still vote for Trump in the upcoming presidential election even if he were a convicted felon, Rubenfeld said, “If that’s true, then an unlawful conviction in this case could interfere with the next election of the next president of the United States, and in fact determine its outcome.”
“Even if the conviction is overturned on appeal years later, that impact cannot be undone. In legal terms, it’s called irreparable harm,” Rubenfeld said.
If the conviction is overturned on appeal in the future, Rubenfeld suggested that Bragg and Judge Juan Merchan “would have illegally interfered with the election and decided the outcome of the next election through unconstitutional means.”
“An appeal that will go on for years will have no effect on this,” he said.
Despite media reports, Rubenfeld insisted it was “not true” that Trump was already a “convicted criminal,” arguing that “a person does not become a convicted criminal because of a jury verdict.”
“You are not guilty until the judge renders a guilty verdict. Now, in New York, it is very likely that Judge Marchen will render a guilty verdict against Trump on the same day that he hands down the sentence. That will be July 11.”
Rubenfeld stressed that Trump’s lawyers could take “another route” to fight the sentence — filing a lawsuit in federal court and “seeking an emergency, temporary restraining order.”
Outlining the nature of this effort, Rubenfeld said: “In this federal action, Trump will sue District Attorney Bragg and other state actors and ask a federal judge for an emergency temporary restraining order that would prevent Judge Marchen from entering a guilty verdict until the federal courts have had an opportunity to review and reject the serious constitutional arguments that are raised here.”
Rubenfeld expressed concern that criminally targeting former presidents “is a bad thing for this country”. “Ambiguous” crimesHe also explained what his problems are with the matter related to Trump.
What will happen if Trump is convicted? Legal experts analyze it
“It’s a very bad thing for this country to take criminal action against a former president of the United States and someone who is now running for president,” he said. “It’s even worse when the person filing the case and the judge deciding it are members of the opposing political party. And it’s even worse when the crime is so vague that the state is saying nothing about the actual charges during the trial and, in fact, during the trial.”
Former President Donald Trump sits with his lawyers at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 29, 2024 in New York City. (Jabin Botsford/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
“We still don’t know exactly what the jury found Trump guilty of,” Rubenfeld said.
Rubenfeld said people who criminally target members of the opposing political party, in this case Trump, who is “the leading candidate in polling,” “should have rights.”
“You better not pursue some new legal theory where you have to hide the ball (and) it’s not even clear what the charges are,” he said. “That could be a very dangerous precedent for this country. A very bad and dangerous precedent.”
“That’s why it’s so important for a federal court to review the constitutionality of this prosecution and decide whether or not it was constitutional,” he said. “The only way to achieve that before the election is for Trump’s team to file suit in federal court and ask the federal court to temporarily block the guilty verdict until the federal courts and perhaps the Supreme Court itself can decide on an emergency basis the likelihood of success of these constitutional arguments.”
If that doesn’t happen, “that risk of ‘irreparable harm’ that I mentioned earlier is where we’ll be,” Rubenfeld said.
Trump will be sentenced on July 11 and could face prison; this comes just days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (AP)
“But if that happens, the nation could get a ruling from the federal courts, even the United States Supreme Court, before the election even takes place,” he said. “Maybe that’s what the nation needs, and maybe that’s what the law demands here.”
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Last week, his Lawsuit in ManhattanThe jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records related to payments of money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11 and could face prison time, just days before his sentencing. Republican National Convention The event will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
