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A judge agreed Friday to postpone Donald Trump\u2019s sentencing in his hush money case until after the November election, granting him a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the homestretch of his presidential campaign.<\/p>\n
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, who is also weighing a defense request to overturn the verdict on immunity grounds, delayed Trump\u2019s sentencing until Nov. 26, several weeks after the final votes are cast in the presidential election.<\/p>\n
It had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.<\/p>\n
Merchan wrote that he was postponing the sentencing \u201cto avoid any appearance \u2014 however unwarranted \u2014 that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts,\u00a0petitioning the judge<\/a> and asking a\u00a0federal court to intervene<\/a>. They argued that punishing the former president and current Republican nominee in the thick of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawyers argued that delaying his sentencing until after the election would also allow him time to weigh next steps after Merchan rules on the defense\u2019s request to\u00a0reverse his conviction and dismiss the case<\/a>\u00a0because of the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s July\u00a0presidential immunity ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n In his order Friday, Merchan delayed a decision on that until Nov. 12.<\/p>\n A\u00a0federal judge on Tuesday rejected Trump\u2019s request<\/a>\u00a0to have the U.S. District Court in Manhattan seize the case from Merchan\u2019s state court. Had they been successful,\u00a0Trump\u2019s lawyers said<\/a>\u00a0they would have then sought to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed on immunity grounds.<\/p>\n Trump is appealing the federal court ruling.<\/p>\n The Manhattan district attorney\u2019s office, which prosecuted Trump\u2019s case, deferred to Merchan and did not take a position on the defense\u2019s delay request.<\/p>\n Messages seeking comment were left for Trump\u2019s lawyers and the district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Election Day is Nov. 5, but many states allow voters to cast ballots early, with some set to start the process just a few days before or after the date Sept. 18.<\/p>\n Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first presidential campaign. Trump\u2019s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.<\/p>\n Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case \u2014 brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat \u2014 was part of a politically motivated \u201cwitch hunt\u201d aimed at damaging his current campaign.<\/p>\n Democrats backing their party\u2019s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made his conviction a focus of their messaging.<\/p>\n In speeches at the party\u2019s conviction in Chicago last month, President Joe Biden called Trump a \u201cconvicted felon\u201d running against a former prosecutor. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, labeled Trump a \u201ccareer criminal, with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s 2016 Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, inspired chants of \u201clock him up\u201d from the convention crowd when she quipped that Trump \u201cfell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made his own kind of history: the first person to run for president with 34 felony convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge, which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.<\/p>\n Trump has pledged to appeal, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.<\/p>\n In seeking the delay, Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued that the short time between the scheduled immunity ruling on Sept. 16 and sentencing, which was to have taken place two days later, was unfair to Trump.<\/p>\n To prepare for a Sept. 18 sentencing, the lawyers said, prosecutors would be submitting their punishment recommendation while Merchan is still weighing whether to dismiss the case. If Merchan rules against Trump, he would need \u201cadequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n The Supreme Court\u2019s immunity decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president\u2019s unofficial actions were illegal.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended reading:<\/strong>
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