John Jefferson
Donald Trump will not be sentenced in his hush money case until after the presidential election in November, as the judge overseeing the criminal case against the former president moved his September 18 court date to avoid the appearance of political interference in the crucial weeks before Election Day.
Trump, the first president to be convicted of a crime, will not face Justice Juan Merchan in a Manhattan courtroom until November 26.
The judge had already delayed Trump’s sentencing to September 18 after initially scheduling Trump’s date in court on July 11.
Judge Merchan agreed to Trump’s request to push back the hearing while he considered his arguments to toss the verdict in the wake of the Supreme Court’s “immunity” decision, which determined that presidents can be shielded from some criminal prosecution for official acts carried out while in office.
The judge is expected to issue a decision on that motion on September 16.
In their request to delay his sentencing until after November’s election, Trump’s attorneys accused the court and prosecutors of “election interference” and argued that the timing for the September 18 court date “illustrates just how unreasonable it is to have the potential for only a single day” between the immunity decision and what they called an “unwarranted sentencing.”
Attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove claimed “there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar” and “no basis for continuing to rush.”
Trump was convicted on May 30 after 16 days of witness testimony and two days of jury deliberations.
A jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of an effort to conceal reimbursements to his then-attorney Michal Cohen, who bought the silence of adult film star Stormy Daniels to prevent her from going public with her story about having sex with Trump in 2006.
Prosecutors argued that Trump’s efforts sought to corruptly influence the outcome of the 2016 by hiding politically damaging stories about then-candidate Trump in the weeks before Election Day.
This is a developing story
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