Trump and the statute of limitations

By Albert DeSimone

I am having difficulty understanding the Trump hush money trial and the statute of limitations. 

A few basics. The statute of limitations for a felony charge in New York is 5 years, meaning the individual charged with the felony must be indicted within 5 years. Trump was charged on February 14, 2017, with 34 felony accounts involving hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and campaign fraud. 

Under normal circumstances,Trump should have been indicted no later than February 14, 2022. However, he was indicted on March 30, 2023, about 1 year and 42 days after the charges were filed. 

So, how is this indictment legal, considering it occurred long after the 5 year statute of limitations? 

First, we have to start with the word “tolling.” Tolling is a legal term to describe a pause in the statute of limitations with that time added to the end of the normal statute of limitations. 

New York Governor Cuomo tolled the statute of limitations during COVID, but for how long is a lingering question.  

I have plied through the related New York Executive Orders, and the tolling period should be 228 days.

The 228-day tolling period is corroborated by several articles from legitimate legal sources, including Rivkin Radler,  Certilman Balin, and the New York Law Journal (“What Lawyers Now Need To Know About COVID-19 Tolling in New York,” Ira Brad Matetsky):

The executive orders ultimately remained in effect from March 20, 2020, until November 3, 2020, a period of 228 days.

The pre-trial motions of February 25, 2024, say something quite different: 

Thus, the deadline for the prosecution of the alleged conduct was extended by one year and 47 days. In other words, this felony prosecution had to be commenced within 6 years and 47 days from the crimes were allegedly committed. The earliest conduct described in the Indictment allegedly occurred on February 14, 2017. The tolled period or extension for commencing the action thus brought the conduct described  in the Indictment wit the prescribed five-year time limit. 

How did the tolling period go from 228 days to 1 year and 47 days? 

Oo

I have no idea. 

To even further complicate the issue, the pre-trial motions include an additional  justification for tolling the statute of limitations:

The People claim Defendant was "continuously outside this state" while serving as President, as well as when he left Office and therefore that period of time should not be included for speedy trial purposes.

This is an interesting twist. The claim is that Trump was “continually outside this state” while serving as president, which he wasn’t. He visited New York eight times while President (Statista). 

As we all know, he visited New York several times since leaving office to appear in court. Of course, that’s an unfortunate reason, but it’s certainly verifiable.

It appears to me that Judge Merchan pieced together two halves of two laws to make one decision. 

A highly questionable decision at that. 

Albert DeSimone is a retired University of Georgia information technologist now living in Bishop.