But one day after his daughter, Liz Cheney, the congresswoman who led the hearings into the January 6 Capitol attack, revealed she would support Harris, he declared: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump… He can never be trusted with power again.”
Former vice-president Dick Cheney, left, sits with his daughter, then-newly-elected representative Liz Cheney in 2017.Credit: AP
Merchan’s decision caps off a lucky legal streak for Trump, who was meant to face four separate criminal trials this year, including one in Washington for trying to subvert the 2020 election; another in Georgia for trying to overthrow Joe Biden’s electoral college victory in that state; and another one in Florida for his handling of classified documents.
All those cases had been delayed, leaving the hush money case in New York – in which he sought to interfere in the 2016 election he won against Hillary Clinton – the only one for which he faced accountability before voters head to the ballot box on November 5.
Trump’s so-called hush money trial lasted six weeks, involved 22 witnesses and became one of the hottest tickets in town, with people lining up for hours – and sometimes even paying professional line sitters – to get one of the few seats inside the Manhattan criminal court.
At its conclusion a jury found Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to “catch and kill” damning stories that could have derailed his chances of becoming president.
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With the help of National Enquirer tabloid king David Pecker and his Australian content chief Dylan Howard, numerous stories were buried on Trump’s behalf, including that of an affair with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, which Pecker’s company paid $US150,000 to kill, and an unverified story from a hotel doorman about a love child, which cost $US30,000.
However, the 34 charges for which Trump was found guilty by a jury specifically relate to a $US130,000 hush money payment his fixer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump in 2006 when he was newly married to his current wife, Melania.
This crossed a legal line, prosecutors say, because Trump reimbursed Cohen and falsified records to cover the whole thing up, thereby breaching electoral laws.
Trump, who has consistently said he is innocent, was initially due to be sentenced on July 11. However, this was delayed to September after the US Supreme Court’s explosive decision to grant former presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts conducted in office.
The Supreme Court’s immunity decision sent shockwaves across Democratic ranks, with President Joe Biden warning that it would allow Trump to act like a king if re-elected in November.
Ex-president Donald Trump, his attorney Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels.Credit: AP
Trump’s lawyers had used the ruling to push for a delay, arguing that sentencing him in the heat of an election campaign would amount to political interference. Prosecutors did not oppose the delay, saying they would defer to Merchan’s decision.
“This is not a decision this Court makes lightly but it is the decision which, in this Court’s view, best advances the interests of justice,” Merchan wrote.
Trump’s legal victory came hours after he appeared in another judge’s Manhattan courtroom, as his lawyers fought to overturn a $US5 million civil court verdict finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll.
Carrol accused Trump of assaulting her in the lingerie dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s, and then defaming her when she went public with the allegations in 2019.
E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court after former President Donald Trump appeared in court on Friday.Credit: AP
But during a 45-minute press conference at Trump Tower afterwards, the 78-year-old presidential hopeful suggested once again that Carroll was a liar and called her case against him “Monica Lewinsky Part II” (a reference to the White House intern Bill Clinton had sex with) and referenced the infamous dress that played a pivotal role in the impeachment against the then Democrat president.
Trump also brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten, and implied he would not have assaulted some of his accusers due to their looks.
