Judge Merchan denies Trump's plea to pause hush money sentencing

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : In dramatic court testimony, Daniels went into salacious and lurid detail about the night she claimed to have spent with Trump during a charity golf tournament in Nevada.
50% : Judge Juan Merchan ruled last week that Trump, 78, will be sentenced in the case in New York on Friday, just 10 days before his inauguration.
38% : A jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to pornstar Stormy Daniels to keep her quietJustice Juan Merchan denied the incoming president's motion to dismiss the case and the guilty verdict due to his election victory in a dramatic filing on Friday afternoonDaniels' testimony in the trial last year went on for two days and included salacious details of her alleged affair with the president-elect'Even if this Court did find that the disputed evidence constitutes official acts under the auspices of the Trump decision, which it does not, Defendant's motion is still denied as introduction of the disputed evidence constitutes harmless error and no mode of proceedings error has taken place.'Trump lashed out in a post on Truth Social in December calling it a 'completely illegal, psychotic order' by the 'corrupt and biased' judge.
30% : He said that 'Merchan has so little respect for the Constitution that he is keeping in place an illegal gag order on me, your President and President Elect, just so I cannot expose his and his family's disqualifying and illegal conflicts.'Trump was furious about not being 'allowed to defend myself,' calling it a violation of his First Amendment rights.
26% : In May, a jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 payment to a porn star - Stormy Daniels - to keep her quiet ahead of the 2016 presidential election about their alleged affair 18 years earlier.
25% : The case centered on Special Counsel Jack Smith's prosecution of Trump for allegedly masterminding efforts to overthrow the 2020 election while in office, including on January 6 in the Capitol riot.
24% : Merchan also revealed that he is unlikely to jail Trump, who had been potentially facing up to four years behind bars.
20% : Lawyers for Trump argue the case involving porn star Stormy Daniels should now be thrown outIn a dramatic filing on Friday afternoon the judge denied Trump's motion to dismiss the case and throw out the guilty verdict against himThe president-elect lashed out about the 'Witch Hunt' of a case on his Truth Social platform on Sunday calling it 'nothing but a Rigged Charade.'He then referred to 'Acting' Justice Merchan as 'a radical partisan' and called the sentencing decree 'knowingly unlawful' and 'against our Constitution.''If allowed to stand, [it] would be the end of the Presidency as we know it,' Trump added.
14% : Trump regularly tears into the embattled judge, whom he openly despises and has accused of having blatantly anti-MAGA political motivations.
8% : Donald Trump must be sentenced in the criminal case in which he was convicted on criminal charges involving hush money paid to a porn star on Jan. 10Lawyers for Trump argue the case should now be thrown out so it does not get in the way of his ability to govern once he takes the oath of office on January 20, 2025.

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