National News
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Friday agreed to delay sentencing in Donald Trump's hush money case until after the November election, granting him a hard-fought reprieve as he deals with the aftermath of his criminal conviction and heads into the house stretch of his presidential campaign.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan, who can also be considering a defense motion to overturn the decision on immunity grounds, postponed Trump's sentencing until November 26, several weeks after the ultimate votes are solid within the presidential election.
The meeting was scheduled for September 18, about seven weeks before election day.
Merchan wrote that he was postponing sentencing “to avoid any appearance, however unjustified, that the proceedings have been influenced or are attempting to be influenced by the upcoming presidential election in which the defendant is a candidate.”
“The court is a fair, impartial and non-political institution,” he added.
Trump's lawyers pushed for the delay on several fronts. Petition to the judge and asks for a Federal Court should interveneThey argued that punishing the previous president and current Republican candidate within the midst of his campaign to recapture the White House would amount to election interference.
Trump's lawyers argued that postponing the sentencing until after the election would also give him time to think about the following steps after Merchan rules on the defense's motion to overturn his conviction and dismiss the case attributable to the choice of the US Supreme Court in July Presidential immunity decision.
In his order on Friday, Merchan postponed a call on this until November 12.
A Federal judge rejected Trump's request on Tuesday to have the U.S. District Court in Manhattan take over the case from Merchan's state court. If this had been successful, Trump's lawyers said They then tried to overturn the decision and dismiss the lawsuit on immunity grounds.
Trump has appealed the federal court's ruling.
The Manhattan district attorney's office, which prosecuted Trump's case, agreed with Merchan's decision and didn’t comment on the defense's request for a delay.
Messages were left for Trump's lawyers and prosecutors looking for comment.
Election Day is November 5, but many states allow voters to solid their ballots earlier, and a few states are even planning to attend until just a few days before or after September 18.
Trump was found guilty in May of 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter 10 years earlier after meeting at a celeb golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
Prosecutors described the payment as a part of an effort initiated by Trump to stop voters from hearing salacious stories about him during his first presidential campaign. Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company recorded the reimbursements as legal expenses.
Trump insists the stories are false, that the reimbursements for legal work were made and recorded accurately, and that the case – brought by Democratic Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg – is a component of a politically motivated “witch hunt” geared toward damaging his current campaign.
Democrats, who support their party's nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, have made his beliefs a spotlight of their messaging.
In speeches on the party's condemnation in Chicago last month, President Joe Biden called Trump a “convicted felon” running against a former prosecutor. Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett called Trump a “career criminal with 34 felonies, two articles of impeachment and a porn star record.”
Trump's Democratic opponent on the 2016 convention, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, drew chants of “lock him up” from the group when she joked that Trump “fell asleep at his own trial, and when he woke up, he made history in his own way: He became the first presidential candidate to have 34 convictions for a serious crime.”
Falsifying business records will be punished with as much as 4 years in prison. Other possible penalties include probation, a nice or conditional release. Trump would need to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the primary ex-president to be convicted of against the law.
Trump has announced that he’ll appeal, but this may only occur once the decision is final.
In their request for a delay, Trump's lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued that the short time period between the immunity decision scheduled for September 16 and the decision, which was speculated to have taken place two days later, was unfair to Trump.
To prepare for the Sept. 18 sentencing, prosecutors will make their sentencing recommendations while Merchan considers whether to dismiss the case, the lawyers said. If Merchan rules against Trump, he would wish “sufficient time to consider and pursue federal and state appeal options,” they said.
The Supreme Court's immunity decision limits the prosecution of former presidents for official acts and prevents prosecutors from pointing to official acts as evidence that a president's unofficial actions were illegal.
Trump's lawyers argue that, given the decision, the jury within the hush money trial shouldn’t have heard evidence reminiscent of accounts by former White House staff of how the then-president reacted to reports in regards to the Daniels deal.
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