Trump was convicted of 34 felony charges in May after a jury found he fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star before the 2016 election.

Trump, who is due to be sentenced on November 26, could get a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

That landmark ruling led the court, by a conservative 6-3 majority, to rule that presidents have blanket immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.

Before the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move that prosecutors strongly rejected.

If Merchan throws out the case on that basis, there will be no conviction of Trump, 78.

If he doesn’t, Trump’s legal team would almost certainly try to oppose or delay any sentence, insisting it would interfere with Trump’s role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on Jan. 20.

– “A serious blow” –

An editorial in the Kansas City Star newspaper called on the judge in the case to “do what was once unthinkable — force a president-elect to take the oath of office in a prison cell.”

“The surreal scene, while certainly shocking to the rest of the free world, would send an unmistakable message — the rule of law still applies in America.”

But Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, said both the New York case and others around the country were “clearly brought for political purposes (and) have now been widely publicized and rejected in the court of opinion public”.

“Further maneuvering on these cases in the coming weeks would serve no legitimate purpose and would not distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,” he wrote.

Trump has repeatedly derided the case as a witch hunt, saying it “should be closed as a matter of law.”

In addition to the New York case brought by state prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other related to classified documents he allegedly tampered with wrong after leaving office.

However, as president, he could step in to end these cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, would begin to solve them.

A federal judge appointed by Trump has already rejected the documents’ filing, but Smith sought to appeal that decision.

“Trump’s victory means it is unlikely that he will be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal actions,” former U.S. Attorney Randall Eliason said in an article on Substack.

“It is a serious blow to the ideal of the rule of law.”

The conviction in New York, which came just months before an election Trump won in a landslide, was one of several dramatic upsets in the unprecedented race.

In July, Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.

Later that month, President Joe Biden withdrew as the Democratic Party nominee following a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.

This paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first black woman to run for a major US party.

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