Judge delays Donald Trump sentencing in hush money case until after November election

A New York judge has delayed former President Donald Trump’s sentencing on felony criminal charges until November 26.

“This is not a decision this Court makes lightly but it is the decision which in this Court’s view, best advances the interests of justice,” Judge Juan Merchan wrote in the decision handed down Friday.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Donald Trump to be sentenced in hush money case after the election.

Merchan issued the ruling after Trump’s attorneys had asked him to postpone the September 18 sentencing until after the November 5 election to allow them to appeal a pending ruling involving presidential immunity.

That ruling was expected by September 16 — just two days before what would have been the first-ever sentencing of a former president on criminal charges.

Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

“A single business day is an unreasonably short period of time” for such an appeal, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued in an August 14 filing. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”

Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said they would “defer to the Court on whether an adjournment is warranted to allow for orderly appellate litigation” of any Trump appeal, but “would be prepared to appear for sentencing on any future date the Court sets”.

Merchan said in his order Friday that he took that as the DA essentially consenting to the request. He also acknowledged that the case “is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history”.

“The public’s confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion.

“The members of this jury served diligently on this case, and their verdict must be respected and addressed in a manner that is not diluted by the enormity of the upcoming presidential election. Likewise, if one is necessary, the Defendant has the right to a sentencing hearing that respects and protects his constitutional rights,” the judge wrote.

The order also pushed back the date for his ruling on the immunity issue until November 12 —a full two weeks before the possible sentencing date and after the election.

Merchan said the delay should help “avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”

Trump offered a different take during a speech later in the day to the Fraternal Order of Police in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“The Manhattan DA witch hunt against me has been postponed because everyone realises that there was no case because I did nothing wrong. It’s a witch hunt. It’s an attack by my political opponents in Washington, DC, and comrade Kamala Harris,” he said. “This case should be rightfully terminated immediately.”

The ruling was published about an hour after Trump blasted Merchan as a “very hostile” judge in an address to reporters in Manhattan about the various legal cases he’s facing, all of which he said are “hoaxes”.

In a statement, Bragg’s office said: “A jury of 12 New Yorkers swiftly and unanimously convicted Donald Trump of 34 felony counts. The Manhattan DA’s Office stands ready for sentencing on the new date set by the court.”

The delay is the second time Trump’s sentencing has been postponed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling expanding presidential immunity in an unrelated federal criminal case against Trump in Washington, DC.

The sentencing was originally scheduled for July 11, but Merchan granted a request by Trump’s lawyers for extra time to try to convince him that the high court’s July 1 immunity decision should result in the verdict being overturned and the indictment being dismissed.

The drastic moves are necessary, they argue, because the Supreme Court’s ruling shows that Manhattan prosecutors should not have been allowed to present evidence of his “official acts” at trial, including former White House aide Hope Hicks’ testimony describing a conversation she had with Trump while he was president, and the use of various public statements he made as a president as exhibits.

Prosecutors maintain that the Supreme Court ruling had no impact on the evidence they introduced at trial, which centered on Trump’s personal conduct, and that the judge should leave the historic jury verdict in place.

Trump’s attorneys also launched a second effort last month to move the state case into federal court, citing the Supreme Court ruling, another move that could delay the sentencing. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected that request earlier this week.

Hellerstein rebuffed Trump’s attempt to move the case to federal court last year, finding that the evidence in the case “overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal” one for Trump — “a cover-up of an embarrassing event. Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts”.

He said the high court’s ruling had not changed his view. “Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority,” Hellerstein wrote.

In a decision Friday shortly before Merchan’s ruling, Hellerstein also denied Trump’s bid to stay the case while he appeals the ruling.

Trump was at one point facing the prospect of four criminal trials this year. The New York case is the only one to have made it to trial.