Refer Report
Former US President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate. AP Yonhap News.
The sentencing hearing for the ‘sexual harassment hush-money suppression’ case in which former US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was found guilty will take place as scheduled on the 18th.
According to the Associated Press on the 3rd (local time), U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said this, rejecting former President Trump’s request to change the court in charge of the hush money case from the existing New York state court to a federal court.
Judge Hellerstein wrote in his motion to dismiss that “nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision changes my previous conclusion that hush money payments are personal, informal, and outside the scope of executive authority.” Accordingly, the New York state court will hear the case as is, with sentencing set for September 18.
Former President Trump’s side requested the court late last month to transfer the case from the New York state court that was handling the original case to the federal court. They cited the Supreme Court’s decision in July that a former president is entitled to criminal immunity if his or her actions while in office are considered official acts.
However, some interpreted the request by former President Trump as an attempt to block the sentencing of a trial in which a guilty verdict has already been reached from influencing the presidential election in November. This is because some states, such as the key battleground state of Pennsylvania, will begin early voting on the 16th and begin voting in the presidential election around the date of the sentencing.
Former President Trump is facing trial on charges of paying $130,000 (about 174 million won) to former adult film star Stormy Daniels through his personal attorney Michael Cohen in order to prevent revelations about a past sexual relationship between the two before the 2016 presidential election, and then falsifying company records related to the payment.
A 12-member Manhattan criminal court jury unanimously found former President Trump guilty on all 34 counts in May.
Source: Korean