Month: January 2025

Attorneys for President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York judge on Monday to delay his sentencing on Jan. 10 in his “hush money” criminal case.  Trump’s lawyers had again appealed Justice Juan Merchan’s decision to deny Trump’s bids to dismiss the case due to presidential immunity and the demands of the presidential transition period. Merchan had set the sentencing date for this Friday, stating that Trump, 78, would be unlikely to face jail or other legal consequences. Judge Merchan said Trump may appear at his sentencing either in person or virtually.

The ‘hush money’ case involves a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. After a six-week trial in state criminal court in Manhattan, a jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to mask the payment prior to the 2016 election.

Late on Monday, however, the request from Trump’s legal team was denied by Merchan, who wrote that Trump’s arguments “are for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past,” adding that they “are for the most part, factually distinguishable from the actual record or legally inapplicable.”

On Monday afternoon, Trump’s attorneys filed an appeal with a New York appellate court seeking to overturn Merchan’s rulings that upheld Trump’s conviction. Trump’s lawyers did not ask the appeals court to intervene in the sentencing, but may do so  if Merchan sentences Trump on Friday. Trump’s attorneys wrote in the filing with the appeals court Monday: “Justice Merchan’s erroneous decisions threaten the institution of the Presidency and run squarely against established precedent disallowing any criminal process against a President-Elect, as well as prohibiting the use of evidence of a President’s official acts against him in a criminal proceeding,” (per CNN.)

Trump’s spokesperson Steven Cheung reiterated in a statement to CBS News that Trump’s return to the White House requires “an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all of the remaining Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”

Sentencing has been delayed repeatedly in the months since – after being initially scheduled for July 11, a Sept. 18 sentencing date was set – and then pushed back after Trump asked to move it until after the election. The new sentencing date for Nov. 26 was delayed again after Trump won the presidential election, and Trump’s team filed another motion to dismiss, saying it was unconstitutional to hold criminal proceedings related to a president-elect.

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Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel said on Monday that it they are suing the Biden administration over the decision to block its sales agreement, alleging that the White House used the government review process as a pretext to reject the merger as a favor to the United Steelworkers (USW) labor union.

On Friday, Biden announced he was blocking Nippon Steel’s $14.1 billion agreement to buy U.S. Steel, citing national security concerns and threats to the domestic steel market. The CFIUS, which makes recommendations to the president on large deals involving foreign entities, declined to approve – or disapprove – the Nippon-U.S. Steel deal, allowing Biden to block the transaction.

In their lawsuit filed in the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Japanese-based company and U.S. Steel said Biden violated Constitutional guarantees of due process and statutory procedural requirements along with “unlawful political influences.”

Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel said Monday in a statement outlining their lawsuit: “President Biden’s Order is the culmination of a months-long campaign to subvert and exploit the United States’ national security apparatus for the purpose of keeping a promise made by the President and his advisors to the USW leadership.” 

A second lawsuit accuses Cleveland-Cliffs, a rival steel company that pursued their own purchase of U.S. Steel, and U.S. Steel’s union for working together to illegally nix the sale. That federal lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania. The steel companies added: “Today’s legal actions demonstrate Nippon Steel’s and U.S. Steel’s continued commitment to completing the transaction — despite political interference with the [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] process and the racketeering and monopolistic conspiracies of Cleveland-Cliffs and USW President David McCall — for the benefit of all stakeholders, including U.S. Steel’s shareholders, who will receive the agreed-upon $55 per share upon the transaction closing.”

The steel companies said that Cleveland Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy Allied Industries and Service Workers International Union (which represents U.S. Steel workers)  of collusion: “Cleveland-Cliffs,in collusion with the leadership of the USW, has sought to prevent the transition from closing and any party other than Cliffs from acquiring U.S.Steel.”

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