FACT FOCUS: Trump responds to guilty verdict with attacks and false claims
Former President Donald Trump on Friday sought to relitigate several aspects of his hush money trial, making several false and unsupported claims after being convicted on 34 felony charges by a New York juryabcnews.go.com
CLAIM: “They missed the statute of limitations by a lot because this was very old. They could have brought this seven years ago instead of bringing it right in the middle of the election.”
THE FACTS: Judge Merchan in February denied a request from Trump’s legal team to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the statute of limitations had passed, according to court documents.
In his decision, Merchan cited pandemic-era executive orders issued in March 2020 and April 2021 by former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that extended the limit on filing criminal charges.
New York’s statute of limitations for most felonies is five years. The earliest charge in Trump's felony indictment was described as occurring on Feb. 14, 2017, while the indictment was filed on March 30, 2023.
But Cuomo's executive orders meant that the deadline for filing the charges in the indictment was extended by one year and 47 days, meaning that it was brought just under the wire.
In New York, the clock can also stop on the statute of limitations when a defendant is continuously outside the state. Trump visited New York rarely over the four years of his presidency and now lives mostly in Florida and New Jersey. Merchan did not address this argument in his decision.
What date would be 2 years after February 14, 2017 and when was COVID?
Trump Was Convicted — But Prosecutors Contorted the Law (nymag.com)
May 31, 2024
"The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor — in New York, or Wyoming, or anywhere — has ever charged federal election laws as a direct or predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None. Ever. Even putting aside the specifics of election law, the Manhattan DA itself almost never brings any case in which falsification of business records is the only charge.
Standing alone, falsification charges would have been mere misdemeanors under New York law, which posed two problems for the DA. First, nobody cares about a misdemeanor, and it would be laughable to bring the first-ever charge against a former president for a trifling offense that falls within the same technical criminal classification as shoplifting a Snapple and a bag of Cheetos from a bodega. Second, the statute of limitations on a misdemeanor — two years — likely has long expired on Trump’s conduct, which dates to 2016 and 2017.
So, to inflate the charges up to the lowest-level felony (Class E, on a scale of Class A through E) — and to electroshock them back to life within the longer felony statute of limitations— the DA alleged that the falsification of business records was committed “with intent to commit another crime.” Here, according to prosecutors, the “another crime” is a New York State election-law violation"
