Being a president in prison? US court rejects Trump's 'hush money' case delay request, 1/10 sentencing for 34 felonies.

US President-elect Trump's request to postpone the sentencing in the 'hush money case' on the grounds of 'presidential immunity' has been rejected by a New York court. The sentencing will proceed as scheduled on January 10th. Trump's legal team stated that they will continue to take legal action to try to prevent the sentencing from being carried out. With less than two weeks left until Trump's official inauguration for his second term on January 20th, the court ruled that the case will proceed as scheduled on January 10th. This means that Trump may not be able to prevent the completion of the legal process before his inauguration. Trump's lawyers argued that he should be granted the same criminal immunity as the incumbent president, but this argument was not supported by the court. Prosecutor Steven Wu pointed out that there is 'no evidence to show that this immunity applies to Trump' and emphasized that postponing the sentencing is not in the public interest, stating that 'now is the best time to end this case'. Trump is facing 34 counts of felony charges for allegedly paying hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to cover up scandals that were detrimental to the 2016 presidential election. The case was decided in May last year, with a maximum sentence of 4 years imprisonment. The sentencing, originally scheduled for July 11th last year, was postponed to January this year due to multiple legal challenges from Trump's side. The prosecution believes that Trump's crimes are 'unofficial acts' unrelated to his presidential duties and do not constitute an infringement of the powers of the executive branch. Judge Juan Merchan has indicated that he is inclined to impose 'unconditional release' on Trump, which means no imprisonment, fine, or probation measures, but only leaving a stain on Trump's record. This decision aims to balance the presidential responsibilities with the judicial process while upholding the jury's verdict. Nonetheless, Trump's legal team plans to continue to appeal in an attempt to postpone or even revoke the sentencing. They claim that the ruling in the case may pose a 'serious threat' to the presidential system.