KOA Headlines
11 20 24 DU Law Professor Ian Farrell Talks Pause in Trump Criminal Trial
But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Member FDIC. Hello, it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on Chumba Casino.com. I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing. They're also playing Chumba Casino. Everybody's loving having fun with it. Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime anywhere. So sign up now at Chumba Casino.com to claim you're a free welcome bonus. That's Chumba Casino.com and live the Chumba life. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary, VGW Group, void work prohibited by law, 18 plus terms and conditions apply. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee maybe? A candle? Or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale so it won't last long. Washington Post.com/bf24. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg asked a judge to pause for the proceedings in the criminal trial against President-elect Trump in order to give both sides time the way the unprecedented situation before his election victory. Trump argued that his 34 felony conviction should be tossed out based on the Supreme Court's July 1st presidential immunity decision. On November 10th, after his victory, a Trump lawyer argued in an email to Judge Juan Mershan that the case should also be dismissed based on the election in order to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump's ability to govern. Joining us now on the K-way common spirit health hotline to talk more about it is D.U. constitutional law professor Ian Farrell. Professor Farrell, thank you so much for your time as always walking through what we've seen so far. When we look at this case and we talk about a pause in it currently, how long of a pause could we be talking about here? Yeah, that's a great question. The pause could be as long as President Trump's term in office, so one option that has been considered is putting this all on pause until President Trump leaves office, because the underlying issue here is whether or not any action taken in this case or in the other cases against President Trump criminally would, as you said, impede his ability to fulfill his constitutional functions as president. Professor, last time we had John, we discussed essentially what SCOTUS ruled, and they sort of left a carve out. I think defining it as what is official and unofficial presidential duties. Would a decision on this case, the House money case specifically, that kind of falls into this carve out, does it not? That's one of the questions that's that issue, because the actual conduct here that's charged did not happen while President Trump was in office. The Hush Money payment being made prior to his initial election for his first term. The Supreme Court, when they made the immunity decision, not only said though that you can't be charged for official acts as president, but that your official acts couldn't even be used as evidence in the trial. One of the arguments being made now was that the conviction was tainted by the prosecution talking about what Trump did in his first term. That would have to be passed through fairly carefully to see which of those were official acts and which ones were it. Professor, if this case was put on pause for four years, we're talking 2029, a long time from now, a lot of things can happen in that matter of time. I mean, at that point, could we see a new DA, a new judge, people with new opinions of how this case could or could not go forward? Yeah, certainly new people could be involved and another option the judge has would be to say impose a non-custodial sentence now. And so if President Trump would say bind or give a probation at the moment, there would be an argument that that doesn't impede his functions as president. So if the parties involved want to resolve this while they're still involved, that's one way that they could do it. We always hear the term, it's unprecedented until it is. I'm going to assume that some new precedents could be potentially set by this regardless of the outcome, especially if the president elect is found guilty specifically in this case. But is this an example of where we're going to see as we often hear with justice, justice delayed, justice denied? Yeah, I mean, that's a really good point. So depending on how long this is delayed and given, as you said, the things that could be could come up in the meantime, yeah, there is an argument that, and to be honest also it might not even be delayed, it could be that the case is thrown out. And so the fact that former President Trump is now President-elect Trump, you know, really does put things up in the air in a way that could get in the way of justice or the fulfillment of any conviction against him. Professor, with your experience, what do you think the final outcome of this could look like? Are we talking of fine? Are we talking probation? Are we talking jail time? Or in the end, do you think just having it thrown out? And if so, what would the timeline of that actually look like? Yeah, that's a great question you say in my experience. I think nobody has had any experience with anything really like this. I think that, look, I really don't know. One additional argument that we haven't mentioned is that Trump's lawyers will argue that having this hanging over his head over the next four years will itself impede his ability to before me, his constitutional functions, whether that would be accepted by the courts, I honestly don't know. Do you, constitutional law professor, he also teaches and researches criminal law at the University? It's Ian Farrell. As always, thank you. Thank you. Well, there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with the bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Your FDIC. If you put aside 25 cents every week for a year, what could you get at the end? A few cups of coffee, maybe? A candle? Or you could get a year of the best reporting from all over the world. Go to washingtonpost.com/bf24 right now. You'll get a Washington Post subscription for 25 cents a week for your first year. This is a Black Friday sale, so it won't last long. Washington Post.com/bf24.