The Daily Fuckup

Trump’s New York hush-money case was still alive on Dec. 9, 2024, but not because of any fresh ruling that day. The defense had already filed a motion on Dec. 2 asking Judge Juan Merchan to vacate the conviction or otherwise dismiss the case, and the court record shows prosecutors filed their response on Dec. 9. The judge did not rule until later, on Jan. 3, 2025. The live question on Dec. 9 was simple: whether the conviction would survive the next round of post-trial litigation.

That mattered because the jury had already returned a guilty verdict in May on 34 felony counts. The case was no longer about the facts of the trial; it was about what happened after it. Trump’s lawyers were trying to unwind the judgment or at least blunt its consequences. Prosecutors, for their part, argued the conviction should stand. The filings turned the case into a paper fight over the legal status of a verdict that was already in the books.

By that point, sentencing was no longer the immediate issue. The question was whether the court would erase the conviction, leave it in place, or take some other step that kept the verdict intact while the case moved into a new political phase. On Dec. 9, the answer was still pending. The motion was on the docket, the response was in, and the judge had not yet spoken.