Last Friday, New York Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Donald Trump’s hush money trial, refused to quash the indictment and set aside the jury verdict which made the president-elect a convicted felon. He announced he would sentence Trump on January 10 and, on Monday the judge denied Trump’s motion for a stay.
Along the way, he delivered a stern rebuke to our soon-to-be president and an important reminder to the rest of us that in a free country, even the most powerful people cannot erase their past. Merchan’s ruling, as the New York Times reported, denies the president-elect “the opportunity to clear his record before returning to the White House.”
