NEW YORK: A judge agreed Friday to postpone Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case until after the November election, granting him a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the homestretch of his presidential campaign.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is also weighing a defense request to overturn the verdict on immunity grounds, delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, several weeks after the final votes are cast in the presidential election.
It had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.
Merchan wrote that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
“The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution,” he added.
Trump’s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene. They argued that punishing the former president and current Republican nominee in the thick of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
Trump’s lawyers argued that delaying his sentencing until after the election would also allow him time to weigh next steps after Merchan rules on the defense’s request to reverse his conviction and dismiss the case because of the US Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
In his order Friday, Merchan delayed a decision on that until Nov. 12.
A federal judge on Tuesday rejected Trump’s request to have the US District Court in Manhattan seize the case from Merchan’s state court. Had they been successful, Trump’s lawyers said they would have then sought to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds.
Trump is appealing the federal court ruling.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Trump’s case, deferred to Merchan and did not take a position on the defense’s delay request.
Messages seeking comment were left for Trump’s lawyers and the district attorney’s office.
Election Day is Nov. 5, but many states allow voters to cast ballots early, with some set to start the process just a few days before or after the date Sept. 18.
Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first presidential campaign. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case — brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat — was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his current campaign.
Democrats backing their party’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made his conviction a focus of their messaging.
In speeches at the party’s conviction in Chicago last month, President Joe Biden called Trump a “convicted felon” running against a former prosecutor. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, labeled Trump a “career criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.”
Trump’s 2016 Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, inspired chants of “lock him up” from the convention crowd when she quipped that Trump “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge, which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.
Trump has pledged to appeal, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.
In seeking the delay, Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued that the short time between the scheduled immunity ruling on Sept. 16 and sentencing, which was to have taken place two days later, was unfair to Trump.
To prepare for a Sept. 18 sentencing, the lawyers said, prosecutors would be submitting their punishment recommendation while Merchan is still weighing whether to dismiss the case. If Merchan rules against Trump, he would need “adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options,” they said.
The Supreme Court’s immunity decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.
Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election
https://arab.news/6swzc
Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election
- It had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day
- Trump’s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene
France arrests new Algerian influencer as tensions soar
Rafik M. had “called on Tiktok for the carrying out of violent acts on French territory,” said Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on social media, without saying where he had been arrested.
The influencer is one of half a dozen Algerians arrested in France over the last month on accusations of calling for violence on French territory.
One of them, known as “Doualemn,” was deported to Algeria where the authorities promptly sent him back to France in a move that incensed Retailleau.
Tensions have surged between France and Algeria after President Emmanuel Macron renewed French support for Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara during a visit to the kingdom last year.
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is mostly under the de facto control of Morocco. But it is claimed by the Algiers-backed Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, who want a self-determination referendum.
Algeria meanwhile has been holding French-Algerian novelist Boualem Sansal on national security charges. Sansal, who was arrested at Algiers airport in November, is a major figure in modern francophone literature.
Retailleau, a hard-line rightwinger, has repeatedly accused Algeria of “seeking to humiliate France.”
The far-right in France is urging the government to take tough measures against Algiers, including canceling aid, cooperation agreements and delivering visas.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said earlier this month France would have “no option but to retaliate” if “the Algerians continue to escalate” the row.
But Algeria has rejected France’s accusation of escalation, denouncing a “campaign of disinformation” by Paris.
Retailleau’s hard-line stance on a diplomatic issue has not met with universal approval in France, with influential former foreign minister and prime minister Dominique de Villepin accusing hin of “escalation” and giving into “the temptation of settling scores.”
Defense minister Sebastien Lecornu called on Tuesday for “rebuilding the relationship” between Algeria and France, while expressing regret over “the current excesses of the Algerian government.”
Retailleau himself said in an interview published Tuesday that “we now need to normalize our diplomatic relations with Algeria,” adding that “the time has come to turn the page.”
Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a ferocious over seven year war and the scars from that conflict have never fully healed.
Indonesia rescuers search for survivors as landslide kills at least 17
- Intense rainfall in a mountainous area near Pekalongan city in Central Java province sparked the landslide on Monday
Pekalongan: Hundreds of rescuers were searching through thick mud and debris to find survivors Wednesday after a rain-triggered landslide in Indonesia killed at least 17 people and left nine missing.
Intense rainfall in a mountainous area near Pekalongan city in Central Java province sparked the landslide on Monday, collapsing bridges and burying cars and houses.
Search and rescue agency Basarnas said in a statement Wednesday that the toll remained unchanged from Tuesday at 17 dead, nine missing and 13 people injured.
But another body was found, Mohammad Yulian Akbar, a local official told AFP later Wednesday, giving a higher toll of 18.
Heavy machinery was deployed to clear road access for search teams and around 200 rescue personnel have been sent to help, Akbar said.
“The focus is to search for the victims,” he said, adding that the local government had declared an emergency in the district for two weeks.
The worst hit area was Kasimpar village according to the local official, where the landslide struck a coffee shop and people who were trying to shelter from the rain.
Police, soldiers and volunteers have joined the search alongside rescue workers, which is taking place around 90 kilometers (60 miles) west of the city of Semarang.
But efforts were intermittently suspended Tuesday as heavy rain continued to pound the area.
The weather forecast for the next three days suggests moderate rain that could “cause floods, flash floods and landslides,” warned Abdul Muhari, a spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), on Tuesday.
Indonesia is prone to landslides during the rainy season, typically between November and April.
In November, flooding triggered by intense rains in western Indonesia killed 27 people.
But some disasters caused by adverse weather have taken place outside that season in recent years. Climate change has also increased the intensity of storms, leading to heavier rains, flash floods and stronger gusts.
In May, at least 67 people died after heavy rains caused flash floods in West Sumatra, pushing a mixture of ash, sand, and pebbles from the eruption of Mount Marapi into residential areas.
Trump tests whether a bulldozer can also be a peacemaker
- During his first stint in power, Trump ordered a strike that killed senior Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and vowed confrontation with China
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has vowed to be a peacemaker in his new term, but his aggressive early actions threaten to alienate US friends in a way that could hinder his ambitions, experts say.
In an inaugural address on Monday, Trump said that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier” and pointed to his support for a new ceasefire in Gaza.
Speaking to reporters as he returned to the White House after four years, Trump also suggested he would press Russia to make a deal to end its three-year invasion of Ukraine, quipping that President Vladimir Putin — with whom he had famously warm relations in the past — knows he is “destroying” his own country.
But in the throwback to the bedlam of his 2017-2021 term, Trump’s return was also consumed by rage over grievances at home, and the most memorable foreign-policy line of his inaugural address was a vow to take back the Panama Canal, which the United States returned in 1999 but where Trump charges that China has gained too strong a foothold.
Trump has also spoken of seizing Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, moved to send the military to the Mexican border to stop migration, vowed tariffs even against close allies and announced the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord, both home to almost every other country.
“Trump’s worldview seems to be contradictory. He has a streak that is pro-peace and another streak which seems more confrontational and militarist,” said Benjamin Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, which advocates restraint.
During his first stint in power, Trump ordered a strike that killed senior Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and vowed confrontation with China, although he also boasted of keeping US troops out of new wars and sought diplomacy with North Korea.
“In the first term, the more confrontational and militarist streak won out more often than not” on tension spots such as Iran, Friedman said.
This time, he said, at least on Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump appears to have shifted to a more progressive stance.
But on Latin America, and in his selection of aides with hawkish views on China, Trump remains hawkish, Friedman said.
He said that Trump essentially had a 19th-century philosophy in line with populist president Andrew Jackson, feeling a comfort with threatening the use of force to achieve national interests.
Such a way of thinking, for Trump, “isn’t consistent necessarily with being a peacemaker or a warmonger” but rather is a mix.
Trump made no clear mention of US allies on his inaugural day. In the past he has described NATO allies as freeloaders and pushed them to pay more for their own security.
However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting Tuesday with counterparts from Japan, India and Australia — the so-called Quad of democracies which China sees as an effort to contain its rise.
Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Trump should be mindful of lessons from China, whose assertive “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy brought together a number of Asian countries on the receiving end.
“It would be a profound shift if the United States went from being seen as the principal provider of security to being the principal source on uncertainty,” Alterman said.
Trump, as he seeks to negotiate deals, “has an interest in keeping friendly countries on his side,” Alterman said.
Kori Schake, who served in senior defense planning roles under former president George W. Bush, said it was too early to tell the impact of Trump’s “chaos” on peacemaking and said that early actions could have been even more severe.
“But the actions he did take are still damaging. Withdrawing from the World Health Organization will give us less warning of emergent disease,” she said.
“Antagonizing Panama is counterproductive and will fan anti-Americanism throughout the hemisphere,” she said.
Trump’s UN pick blasts ‘anti-Semitic rot’ in world body
- Stefanik was pushed on her views on the war in Gaza, and noted that she voted to defund UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees
WASHINGTON: Donald Trump’s nominee to represent Washington at the United Nations railed against “anti-Semitic rot” in the global organization as she was grilled by senators at her confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
New York congresswoman Elize Stefanik noted that America contributes more to the UN than any other country and called for reform to ensure its tax dollars were not “propping up entities that are counter to American interests, anti-Semitic, or engaging in fraud, corruption or terrorism.”
A right-wing firebrand who was considered a moderate before the Trump era, Stefanik is seen as one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of both Israel and US Jewish causes.
“It’s one of the reasons why, in my conversation with President Trump, I was interested in this position — because if you look at the anti-Semitic rot within the United Nations, there are more resolutions targeting Israel than any other country, any other crisis, combined,” Stefanik told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.
Stefanik, 40, made the same criticism of the US higher education system as she touted her record of holding the feet of college administrators to the fire during aggressive questioning last year over anti-Semitism on campuses.
“My oversight work led to the most viewed testimony in the history of Congress,” she said.
“This hearing with university presidents was heard around the world and viewed billions of times, because it exposed the anti-Semitic rot in colleges and universities and was a watershed moment in American higher education.”
Stefanik was pushed on her views on the war in Gaza, and noted that she voted to defund UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Former president Joe Biden halted its US funding over allegations that members were possibly involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Stefanik also revealed that she agreed with far-right Israeli ministers who believe Israel has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank” — but avoided being pinned down on whether she supported Palestinian self-determination.
Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman is the only Democrat to have pledged his support for Stefanik, but others have indicated they may wave her through and she is expected to be confirmed with little drama in a vote of the full Senate.
“If confirmed, I will work to ensure that our mission to the United Nations serves the interest of the American people, and represents American President Trump’s America First, peace-through-strength foreign policy,” she said.
Australia probes possible foreign funding behind anti-Semitic attacks
- Vandals have in recent weeks torched a Sydney childcare center, set cars ablaze in largely Jewish neighborhoods and splashed inner-city synagogues with red paint and graffiti
SYDNEY: Australia is investigating whether local criminals were paid by foreign actors to carry out a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday.
Vandals have in recent weeks torched a Sydney childcare center, set cars ablaze in largely Jewish neighborhoods and splashed inner-city synagogues with red paint and graffiti.
Masked arsonists firebombed a synagogue in the city of Melbourne in December.
Albanese said some of these attacks appeared to have been carried out by “paid actors.”
“Some of these are being perpetrated by people who don’t have a particular issue, aren’t motivated by an idealogy, but are paid actors,” he said.
“It’s unclear who or where the payments are coming from.”
Australian Federal Police commissioner Reece Kershaw said detectives were investigating whether cash to fund these attacks had flowed from “overseas.”
“We are looking into whether overseas actors or individuals have paid local criminals in Australia to carry out some of these crimes in our suburbs.”
Neither Albanese nor police offered any details about what evidence authorities may have collected, which foreign actors were under suspicion, or why they were supposedly involved.
Police on Wednesday charged a 33-year-old man with attempting to light a Sydney synagogue on fire.
Eight people were charged on Tuesday with a string of “hate crime-related incidents” dating back to November, police said.
