Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comments from Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, Loren Merchan, which Headline USA obtained after reaching out on Wednesday evening.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A high-profile former federal prosecutor has issued a warning about the imminent incarceration of President Donald Trump in the Manhattan case led by Soros-linked Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and presided over by Democrat Judge Juan Merchan.
Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Southern District of New York, wrote in a Fox News column that Trump could be jailed on Sept. 18, despite the mounting legal issues complicating the Manhattan case.
Among these issues is the Supreme Court’s ruling that Trump cannot be prosecuted for acts made while in office and that these acts cannot be used as evidence in criminal proceedings.
Despite these factors, Merchan “has signaled that, come hell or high water, he intends to sentence Trump on Sept. 18,” McCarthy wrote in the Wednesday column. “If you’re keeping score, that would be two days after early voting in the 2024 election begins in Pennsylvania.”
McCarthy’s warning comes after Merchan denied Trump’s recusal motion regarding the financial ties between the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Loren heads consulting firm Authentic Campaigns, which received over $7 million in services from Harris’s failed 2020 campaign, according to Federal Election Commission filings reviewed by Headline USA.
Merchan could not have cared any less about concerns for an apparent conflict of interest. “On Tuesday, Merchan denied the recusal motion. He had signaled his intention to do so in a letter to the parties last week,” McCarthy added.
He also noted that Merchan hinted he would dismiss the immunity claims by Aug. 16, the expected date of the decision, as he ordered the parties to prepare for the sentencing on Sept. 18.
“He instructed the lawyers to submit promptly any arguments they intend to make on that subject,” McCarthy added. “If we may read the tea leaves, Merchan has already decided that he will deny Trump’s immunity motion. There is, moreover, a high likelihood that he will impose a prison sentence against Trump right after that.”
McCarthy predicted that Merchan would dismiss the immunity defense by countering that Trump was not charged on the premise of presidential acts and that he would have been convicted anyway had Bragg not introduced evidence arguably covered by immunity.
McCarthy cautioned, “Such a ruling might be wrong, especially on the latter point (at trial, prosecutors described some of the testimony from Trump staffers as ‘devastating’); but Merchan made so many outrageous rulings in the case that it would be foolish to expect him to change course now.”
Concluding, the former prosecutor stated, “Prepare for Merchan to deny Trump’s immunity claim … and strap in for sentencing on Sept. 18.”
Prepare for Trump to be sentenced to prison on September 18 – my @foxnews opinion column … https://t.co/nXYen2nkbc #FoxNews
— Andy McCarthy (@AndrewCMcCarthy) August 14, 2024
McCarthy is a lawyer, author, Fox News contributor and senior fellow at the National Review. He served in the Southern District of New York from 1993 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2003.
When reached for comment on Wednesday evening, Loren declined to address McCarthy’s op-ed. Instead, she directed Headline USA to an X post by Authentic Campaigns founder Mike Nellis.
Nellis’s post was a response to an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee and dismissed the concerns as “absurd and completely false.”
He added, “However, this has not stopped MAGA world conspiracy theorists from harassing our employees and sending death threats to some of our families.”
I have never spoken publicly about this before, but over the last year and a half, our agency (@Authentic_HQ) has been targeted by a baseless right-wing conspiracy theory that suggests our company is somehow involved in the Donald Trump fraud trial in New York.
The accusations… pic.twitter.com/YGerEOgduV
— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) August 13, 2024
