A New York judge has delayed the sentencing in Donald Trump’s hush money case and allowed the United States president-elect to argue to dismiss the conviction before he takes office on January 20.
Judge Juan Merchan on Friday cancelled a sentencing hearing set for Tuesday without setting a new date.
Both prosecutors and defence lawyers have sought to pause proceedings in the case to deal with the unprecedented legal situation: sentencing an incoming president on a criminal conviction.
Merchan also ruled that Trump’s team may file a motion to dismiss the case. Prosecutors said they would oppose scrapping the conviction.
Trump was found guilty in May on all 34 charges of falsifying business records in relation to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up an alleged sexual encounter before the 2016 presidential election.
In his order, Merchan wrote: “The joint application for a stay of sentencing is granted to the extent that the November 26, 2024 date is adjourned.”
Trump’s lawyers want the case tossed out altogether. Earlier this week, they filed a motion arguing that continuing the prosecution would affect the “orderly transition” of power as Trump takes office.
Trump’s team argued that the state charges – filed by a Democratic district attorney against the Republican former president – were politically motivated.
The US Department of Justice has a rule against prosecuting sitting presidents – a doctrine Trump’s lawyers said should extend to the states.
They also cited the Presidential Transition Act, highlighting the role and duties of the president-elect.
“On November 5, 2024, the Nation’s People issued a mandate that supersedes the political motivations of [the district attorney’s] ‘People’,” they wrote. “This case must be immediately dismissed.”
For its part, the team of District Attorney Alvin Bragg has acknowledged the unprecedented nature of the situation and did not oppose pausing the case.
However, they rejected the argument that Trump is indefinitely immune from prosecution, stressing that the president-elect was convicted before his re-election when he did not have special protection.
Bragg urged the court to balance respect for the office of the president and “fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system” by considering suspending the case until Trump, 78, leaves office early in 2029.
On Friday, Merchan set a December 2 deadline for Trump’s team to file the motion to dismiss. Bragg must deliver his response by December 9.
In a legal system that operates largely on precedent, dealing with the conviction of a president-elect on state charges represents uncharted territory.
The New York case is one of four sets of criminal charges that Trump faced after the end of his first term in 2021.
The former president has been indicted by the Justice Department and state prosecutors in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential vote, which he lost, based on false allegations of voter fraud. He also was indicted at the federal level over allegations of mishandling secret government documents.
‘Weaponized’ justice
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all the cases, describing them as a “witch-hunt” by his political rivals.
On Friday, he reiterated the claim that he is being targeted for political reasons after announcing his new pick for US attorney general, Pam Bondi.
“For too long, the partisan Department of Justice has been weaponized against me and other Republicans – Not anymore,” he wrote in a social media post.
“Pam will refocus the DOJ [Department of Justice] to its intended purpose of fighting Crime, and Making America Safe Again.”
Trump has withstood the legal woes that beset him over the past few years and comfortably won the Republican Party’s presidential nomination this year before defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the general election on November 5.
His status as a “convicted criminal”, which Democrats incessantly underscored during the campaign, did not appear to turn many American voters against him.
