Why the road to Trump's sentencing could be a wild ride

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : All Trump needs is one or more judges of the Appellate Division, First Department -- the applicable first-tier appeals court -- to press pause on the sentencing until 12:01 p.m. on Jan. 20, when Trump becomes president once more.
54% : On Friday on "Alex Wagner Tonight," I posed a third possibility: that Merchan, knowing that even the Manhattan district attorney's team no longer sees jail time as "practicable" given Trump's countdown to becoming the 47th president, at least wanted to ensure that Trump, like any other convicted defendant, would have to stand before a court of law and listen to its strong, humbling description of his conduct.
49% : That's also when, by virtue of taking the oath and for the duration of his term in office, Trump will again have immunity from any and all prosecutions and related proceedings.
47% : Many legal observers -- present company included -- thought Trump would turn immediately to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit (aka the federal appeals court for New York) for relief.
43% : Does Trump genuinely believe he'll fare better in "Blue York" appeals courts than he would before the 2nd Circuit, which, just a week ago, affirmed E. Jean Carroll's first trial victory against him?
38% : Now imagine how a two-week stay of the sentencing in this case would serve Trump's objectives even more clearly: Pausing the sentencing for two weeks would mean that Trump, who will again become president on Jan. 20 at 12:01 p.m., could not be sentenced, if at all, until Jan. 20, 2029, when he is no longer president.
38% : Trump and his lawyers asked Merchan to tell them by 2 p.m. ET on Monday whether he intends to go forward with sentencing; otherwise, they vowed to "seek an emergency appellate review."
30% : "Throughout the opinion, Merchan also bemoans Trump's lack of remorse, noting his "unrelenting and unsubstantiated attacks against the integrity and legitimacy of this process, individual prosecutors, witnesses and the Rule of Law" and observing that Trump has, on multiple occasions, "pursu[ed] a claim with increasing indignation while simultaneously failing to acknowledge that this Court's rulings on those subjects have been repeatedly upheld.
28% : For example, rejecting Trump's argument that the crimes for which he was convicted are comparably not so grave, Merchan castigated Trump for the "premeditated and continuous deception" that underlie his conviction on 34 counts of falsification of business records with the intent to defraud, including "an intent to commit or conceal a conspiracy to promote a presidential election by unlawful means.
28% : And where temporary stays are concerned, the First Department hasn't always been a disappointment for Trump.
27% : On the contrary, it has come through for Trump on a handful of occasions, including by granting a two-week stay of a gag order in another case, thereby freeing Trump to speak freely about the alleged bias of the judge in that case and his law clerk.

*Our bias meter rating uses data science including sentiment analysis, machine learning and our proprietary algorithm for determining biases in news articles. Bias scores are on a scale of -100% to 100% with higher negative scores being more liberal and higher positive scores being more conservative, and 0% being neutral. The rating is an independent analysis and is not affiliated nor sponsored by the news source or any other organization.