Former US President Donald Trump leaves court after a jury found him guilty of all 34 felony charges in his criminal trial in New York State Supreme Court on May 30, 2024.
Justin Lane | Via Reuters
Former President Donald Trump will not be sentenced in a New York criminal hush-hush case until after the Nov. 5 presidential election, a judge ruled Friday.
Sentencing, set for September 18, will take place on November 26 in Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan ruled.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, will not be convicted at all if the court grants his request to dismiss the case in light of a Supreme Court ruling that expands the scope of presidential immunity.
Merchan in his four-page order said he would rule on Trump’s bid to overturn the jury’s guilty verdict on Nov. 12. Trump will be sentenced “if necessary” two weeks later, Merchan ruled.
“This matter stands alone, in a unique place in the history of this Nation,” the judge wrote.
If Trump is convicted, then the public deserves “a sentencing hearing focused entirely on the jury’s verdict” and one “free from distraction or distortion.”
“Unfortunately, we are now at a point in time that is fraught with complexities that make the requirements of a sentencing hearing, if necessary, difficult to accomplish,” Merchan wrote.
The case centers on a $130,000 payment Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen made to prevent porn star Stormy Daniels from speaking ahead of the 2016 presidential election about an alleged one-night stand with Trump years earlier. Trump reimbursed Cohen in monthly installments after he won the election.
Trump in mid-July had asked Merchan to dismiss the case and vacate the guilty verdict against him, pointing to the Supreme Court’s bombshell July 1 ruling that granted former presidents “presumptive immunity” for their official acts in office .
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office responded by saying the ruling was unrelated to the hush money case and would not support expunging the jury verdict even if it had been valid.
The Supreme Court ruling had already prompted Merchan to delay Trump’s sentencing, originally scheduled for July 11, by more than two months.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Chung said in a statement Friday, “There should be no conviction in the Manhattan Election Meddling Witch Hunt.”
“As directed by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all other Harris-Biden hoaxes, should be dismissed,” Chung said.
A representative for Bragg told NBC News that the Manhattan DA’s office “is ready for sentencing on the new date set by the court.”
Trump’s lawyers have repeatedly tried to get Merchan to drop the case. He was accused of political bias before and during the trial, largely because of his adult daughter’s work at a political firm whose clients include high-profile Democrats such as President Joe Biden.
Merchan rejected two immunity requests ahead of the trial, which began in mid-April and ended in late May with Trump’s conviction on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records.
On August 13, Merchan shot down Trump’s third exoneration bid, describing one of his arguments — an attack on the gag order that limits some of Trump’s statements about the case — as “nothing more than an attempt to voice grievances against of this The decisions of the court”.
A day later, Trump’s team urged Merchan to push back the sentencing date until after the Nov. 5 election. “The sentencing is currently scheduled to be carried out after early voting in the presidential election begins,” they noted in a court filing.
Delaying the sentencing date, they argued, “would reduce, if not eliminate, questions about the integrity of any future proceedings.”
Trump also tried, unsuccessfully, to take the hush money case to federal court. Trump’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court on Wednesday to stop a US District Court ruling sending the case back to New York state court.
Bragg’s office told the appeals court in a letter Thursday that Merchan had said he would share his decision Friday on whether or not to delay Trump’s sentencing date.