Judge rejects Trump's request to delay Friday sentencing in hush money case | The Excerpt
On Tuesday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN Justice Department Correspondent Bart Jansen has the latest ahead of Friday sentencing in President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case. A Louisiana patient has died from bird flu. A judge holds Rudy Giuliani in contempt in a Georgia election worker defamation case. Paste BN White House Correspondent Joey Garrison breaks down President Joe Biden's move to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along most U.S. coasts. The McDonald’s flip on DEI brings another win for conservative critics.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Tuesday, January 7th, 2025. This is The Excerpt.
Today, we break down some of the latest developments ahead of Donald Trump's hush money sentencing, plus a patient in Louisiana dies from bird flu. And what Biden's action banning new offshore oil and gas drilling means going forward.
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President-elect Donald Trump officially won a second term in the White House yesterday when the Electoral College votes were read aloud and certified in front of a joint session of Congress led by Trump's 2024 rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. No lawmaker objected during the roughly 30-minute ceremony, but Trump will still need to deal with some fallout from legal troubles including in New York where a judge yesterday denied Trump's request from earlier in the day to halt or delay sentencing scheduled for Friday in his hush money criminal case. I caught up with Paste BN Justice Department correspondent Bart Jansen for a refresher on the case and a look at what's next for sentencing. Hello, Bart.
Bart Jansen:
Hey, how are you?
Taylor Wilson:
Good. Thanks for hopping on, on this today, Bart. So, could you just refresh us on this case? I mean, what's really at issue here?
Bart Jansen:
Well, you'll recall former President Trump was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records, basically to cover up payment that he made to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels, before the 2016 election, to keep her silent about an alleged sexual encounter that they had. He denies it. She says there was one. But basically to keep her quiet before the election because it might have cost him that election. Of course, he went on to win that election in 2016.
But so he was later charged by the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, with falsifying his own company's business records to hide payments to his lawyer, Michael Cohen, who in turn paid Daniels to keep her quiet. So, he was convicted in Manhattan court this year and we're still waiting for resolution to the case.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, yeah, and on that note, Bart, I know we had some new developments last week. Before we fast-forward to this week, how did we get here? What did Judge Juan Merchan decide on Friday?
Bart Jansen:
Well, when you're a sitting president, there is longstanding policy that you should not be charged with criminal charges. The Justice Department has dropped two criminal cases that it had against Trump because of this longstanding policy. And so, then the question was what were the state-level cases going to do? In the New York case, Trump was already convicted, and so the question was could he be sentenced before he takes office? So, on Friday, Juan Merchan denied a motion from Trump to dismiss the case and said that indeed he will hold the sentencing on Friday.
Now, there is a caveat to that in that he's doing the sentencing under a provision in New York law called an unconditional discharge, in which basically there won't be any punishment as part of the sentencing. So, Trump does not face jail time, he does not face a fine, he does not face probation. But what completing the sentencing would do is complete the case for Trump to appeal. Trump has already said he would appeal. He thinks that he was convicted unfairly. He's argued that the judge, Merchan, was conflicted and shouldn't have been presiding over the case.
Taylor Wilson:
So, Bart, I know we have a new development as of late yesterday. What has happened here and what does this really functionally mean now as we move toward Friday?
Bart Jansen:
Well, the judge, Juan Merchan, made a pretty quick decision to say that he was rejecting Trump's request to postpone sentencing indefinitely while appeals courts considered the case. Instead, Merchan said, "Nope, sentencing would take place this Friday as he had ruled last Friday." The sentencing isn't expected to include punishment for Trump, but it will bring a finality to the case that Merchan sought. That means it is fully adjudicated and he would remain a convicted felon in entering the White House unless that ruling is overturned on appeal.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Bart Jansen covers the Justice Department for Paste BN with a great breakdown for us as always. Thank you, sir.
Bart Jansen:
Thanks for having me.
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Taylor Wilson:
A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with bird flu has died of the disease according to the Louisiana Department of Public Health yesterday. The patient is the first in the country to die from bird flu, was over the age of 65, and reported to have underlying medical conditions. The person became ill after contact with a combination of a backyard flock and wild birds, the Health Department said in a news release. While the current health risk for the general public remains low, people who work with birds, poultry, or cows, or have recreational exposure to them are at higher risk. Bird flu has been traveling around the world since 1997. It was largely confined to wild birds until recent years.
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A federal judge in New York found Rudy Giuliani in civil contempt yesterday by ruling he had not answered questions from two Georgia election workers about how he was going to pay them $148 million for defamation. The case marked a significant setback for the former campaign lawyer for president-elect Donald Trump in the same federal district where he served as US attorney. A US district judge had ordered the former New York City mayor to turn over valuables to the women such as a Mercedes Benz once owned by Lauren Bacall, a Manhattan apartment, and an autographed Joe DiMaggio baseball jersey. But lawyers for the election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Wandrea Shay Moss, said he had not provided a single dollar from his cash accounts to settle the judgment. Giuliani turned over the car without the ownership title. The apartment still had Giuliani's ex-wife on ownership papers. And the jersey was never turned over, according to court records.
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President Joe Biden yesterday took sweeping action to permanently ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along most US coasts. I spoke with Paste BN White House correspondent Joey Garrison to learn more. Joey, thanks for hopping on.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
So, Joey, let's just start here. What action did President Joe Biden announce on this?
Joey Garrison:
Yeah. So, Biden on Monday took action to permanently ban offshore oil and gas drilling off of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as well as the eastern side of the Gulf of Mexico. So, this prevents future leasing on 625 million federal acres for oil and gas and really pretty much the entire coast off the continental US. He had taken more isolated action banning offshore drilling, earlier administration, but this is really a sweeping move.
Importantly, it doesn't affect projects that are already happening, drilling that's already happening in the Gulf of Mexico, for example. Additionally, there weren't already major projects in the works, for example, off the coast of California that this prevents, but nonetheless, it's a big symbolic move and one the oil and gas industry vehemently opposes, and so, it is a significant action that he's taking as he leaves office two weeks out, to really put his legacy, his stamp on conservation efforts in the US. He cited climate change as a major reason to do this, environmental concerns, past disasters we've had with oil disasters in the Gulf. And so, that was the impetus behind this.
Taylor Wilson:
Joe, you mentioned his legacy on conservation. Can we just talk through that a little bit just beyond even this move, what else has he done on this front over the last four years?
Joey Garrison:
So, after this move, Biden has now conserved more lands and water in the US than any other previous US president, 670 million acres in all. He cited the same authority in 2021 to protect parts of the ocean off the North Bering Sea from offshore oil gas drilling. And two years ago he did it as well for 2.8 million acres of ocean off the Arctic Ocean in Alaska. And so, building upon those more concentrated moves, he's now taking this more sweeping action that really again affects the entire coast of the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Oceans.
Taylor Wilson:
Interesting. So, I know part of the news here, Joey, is also how President-elect Donald Trump is responding. We're just weeks away from him taking over the White House. What's his response here?
Joey Garrison:
Yeah. So, President-elect Trump wasted no time blasting this move. Of course, Trump has campaigned on this mantra of, "Drill, baby, drill." He called it ridiculous action by Biden in an interview and promised to, quote, "unban it immediately." Now, interestingly, that might be easier said than done. This 1953 law that Biden cited to ban offshore drilling does not explicitly say a future president can revoke it. Some say it's going to require an act of Congress to be able to revoke this, whether there's the appetite for a very evenly, although Republican majority, but very close majority, whether there's that appetite to actually pass legislation to overturn this, that's unclear.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Joey Garrison covers the White House for Paste BN, joining us here in the final days of the Biden administration. Thank you, Joey.
Joey Garrison:
All right. Thanks, Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
McDonald's is the latest major company to flip its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies amid a growing rift between those who support the efforts and political conservatives alongside the incoming Trump administration. The fast food giant yesterday citing the Supreme Court's 2023 decision banning affirmative action in college admissions and an evolving landscape around DEI, said it would no longer set goals to increase diversity in senior leadership.
It also said it would end a program that encouraged suppliers to increase diversity in their ranks, rebranded its diversity team as the global inclusion team, and paused external surveys. McDonald's, which said the changes had been under consideration for months, joins a growing list of major companies to backtrack on DEI commitments made after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 forced a historic reckoning with race in America.
Supporters say DEI programs are critical to level the playing field for people of color and women, while DEI critics say women and people of color are getting jobs and promotions at the expense of more qualified and deserving candidates. An analysis in 2023 found that white men account for seven in 10 executive officers in the nation's largest companies. About one in seven of these companies had executive teams made up of only white men.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.