{"id":15237,"date":"2024-11-20T18:40:51","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T02:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15237"},"modified":"2024-11-20T19:16:02","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T03:16:02","slug":"former-federal-prosecutor-trump-must-be-sentenced-in-ny-before-taking-office-again-bradcast-11202024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bradblog.com\/?p=15237","title":{"rendered":"Former Federal Prosecutor: Trump Must Be Sentenced in NY Before Taking Office Again: ‘BradCast’ 11\/20\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

Will he ever<\/i> face any<\/i> punishment for his many<\/i> crimes? That is among the many issues covered on today’s BradCast<\/i><\/a>. [Audio link to full show follows this summary.<\/i>]\n

FIRST UP…<\/i><\/b> The fight over Donald Trump<\/b>‘s absurd selection of alleged statutory rapist Matt Gaetz<\/b> as the next U.S. Attorney General continued in Congress today, as Republicans on the House Ethics Committee appeared to block the release<\/a> of the report from a years-long investigation into the former Florida Reps’ well-documented record of alleged sex trafficking of minors, paying some $10,000 for sex<\/a>, and illicit drug use, among other (previously) disqualifying issues for someone tapped to head the Dept. of Justice as the nation’s top law enforcement official. <\/p>\n

THEN…<\/b><\/i> The clown show of other Trump appointments to key government posts has continued over the past 24 hours with the selection of pro-wrestling’s WWE co-founder Linda McMahon<\/b> to head<\/a> the Dept. of Education<\/b> (which Trump has previously vowed to shut down) and TV doctor\/snake-oil salesman Dr. Mehmet Oz<\/b> to head up<\/a> the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid<\/b>.<\/p>\n

But one of Trump’s picks this past week has received much less attention than it deserves. Brendan Carr<\/b>, author of the chapter on the FCC in Heritage Foundation<\/b>‘s Project 2025 [PDF]<\/a>, was selected over the weekend<\/a> to become Chair of the Federal Communications Commission<\/b>, even though Trump pretended<\/i> during the campaign that he wanted nothing to do with Project 2025 and the people who created it. Carr quickly took to his friend Elon Musk<\/b>‘s Twitter\/X after his nomination on Sunday to declare a war on “censorship” by Big Tech companies, before subsequently appearing on Fox “News” to suggest the FCC must review broadcast licenses granted to news outlets like CBS. During the campaign, Trump called for the censorship or complete shutdown of almost all broadcast and cable news outlets that are not rightwing propagandists.<\/p>\n

It must also be noted that Project 2025 specifically calls (see p. 279<\/i>) for reviewing the broadcast licenses to Pacifica Radio Network<\/b>, which has dozens of affiliate stations across the country that air The BradCast<\/i> every day, including KPFK<\/b>, our flagship station here in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

NEXT… <\/i><\/b> The New York<\/b> state justice system is in completely uncharted waters at the moment, with the election of Donald Trump<\/b> following his conviction earlier this year on 34 felony counts of fraud related to his hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels<\/b> before the 2016 election. Sentencing in the case had been scheduled for November 26. But this week, prosecutors from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg<\/b> informed<\/a> Justice Juan Merchan<\/b> they were willing to pause sentencing to litigate Trump’s assertions<\/a> that, following his election this month and the U.S. Supreme Court’s absurd “Presidential Immunity” ruling over the Summer, he can never<\/i> be sentenced at all and the case must be dismissed in full. NY prosecutors, however, disagree and argue he should still be sentenced even if, in a worst case scenario, it must wait until after Trump is out of office. <\/p>\n

We’re joined today to help us make sense of this mess by George Washington University law school professor<\/a> RANDALL D. ELIASON<\/b>, who previously served as chief of the U.S. Justice Dept.’s Fraud and Public Corruption section in D.C.. Over the weekend, Eliason argued in an article at The Atlantic<\/a> that New York must proceed with sentencing of Trump before<\/i> he is sworn in to office next January. <\/p>\n

“At this point,” he tells me today, “it’s almost less important what the actual sentence is. But I think it’s important for the justice system to see that this case gets concluded, and doesn’t just kind of dangle out there for the next four years. The case has already been tried and we already have a jury verdict. And it could be sentenced before he even takes office. That’s not going to ‘chill’ him from doing anything as President, because it’s over, and it’s not going to take any of his time because appeals are handled by the lawyers.”<\/p>\n

While conceding “we don’t have any precedent for any of this” and that a prison sentence certainly can’t happen while he’s in office, Eliason argues that it’s “important now that A sentencing happens,” even if it “can’t be that meaningful or consequential. But I think it should take place just as a matter of the justice system completing this prosecution, honoring the jury’s verdict, and having an official judgment of conviction entered on the record that he is, in fact, a convicted felon. Then the appeals can proceed in the normal course.”<\/p>\n

In addition to much more on that, we also discuss…<\/p>\n