President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday said Judge Juan Merchan “should be disbarred” over the hush money case, in a lengthy Truth Social post addressing a number of his legal cases.
In the post, Trump denied falsifying business records and suggested Merchan “might be the most conflicted judge in New York history,” doubling down on his false claims that the case was brought on by the Biden-Harris administration to attack “their political opponent.”
“The judge should be disbarred,” the president-elect wrote.
What happened yesterday: Trump’s comments come after Merchan upheld Trump’s conviction in his hush money case on Friday and set sentencing for January 10. Trump, however, won’t face any legal penalties for his conviction, but will be considered the first convicted felon to become president. The court hearing, which Trump can attend virtually, is scheduled for 10 days before his January 20 inauguration.
Merchan in his ruling referenced Trump’s plans to appeal and said that imposing no penalty would bring “finality” to the case while allowing Trump to continue pursuing an appeal of the conviction. Such an appeal will lack urgency, since Trump will face no punishment that risks interfering with his duties as president.
Separate ruling: In his messages Saturday, Trump also addressed a federal appeals court decision from Monday that upheld a jury’s verdict finding Trump sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll, who was awarded $5 million for battery and defamation. Trump repeated his claim that the verdict was the result of a “totally out of control, Trump hating judge.”
CNN’s Kara Scannell, Paula Reid and Tierney Sneed contributed reporting to this post.
