In this courtroom sketch, Donald Trump appears in state court in Manhattan, New Jersey, during a pretrial hearing on charges that he falsified business records to conceal funds paid to hush porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016.・Former US President Trump appears before Judge Juan Machan via video conference. City of York, May 23, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg Reuter
A New York judge on Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to convict President-elect Donald Trump in his criminal hush money case or move toward sentencing in late November.
The one-week delay was announced two days after the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office asked a judge for time to consider how Trump’s election victory would affect the case.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchan is scheduled to issue a ruling on Tuesday and will decide on November 19 whether the case should be dismissed.
President Trump will be sentenced on November 26 on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels by former lawyer Michael Cohen just before the 2016 presidential election. was scheduled to be sentenced.
Trump’s lawyers asked in July to dismiss the case and set aside the jury’s verdict after the U.S. Supreme Court granted the former president presumed immunity for all official actions while in office.
District Attorney Alvin Bragg had urged Marchand to deny the request, arguing that the high court’s decision was unrelated to Trump’s conviction in the hush-money case.
On Friday, three days after Mr. Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election, his lawyers asked Mr. Bragg’s office for time to review and consider arguments based on the election results and to close all lawsuits. He asked them to agree to suspend the process.
Prosecutors agreed.
“The public agrees that this is an unprecedented situation,” Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in an email to Marchand on Sunday, which was included in a public court filing Tuesday morning. shared by.
The defense argued that “further steps in this proceeding would require (1) a guilty verdict by a jury after a trial with a presumption of regularity, and (2) careful consideration to properly balance the competing interests of the Office of the President.” requires consideration,” Colangelo wrote.
“Suspension and removal are necessary to avoid an unconstitutional impediment to President Trump’s ability to govern,” Trump lawyer Emil Bove wrote in an email reply to Colangelo and Marchan.
Late Sunday, Marchand granted a request to extend the current litigation deadline.
In a statement to NBC News on Tuesday afternoon, President Trump’s transition press secretary, Stephen Chan, said: “The American people have known enough by now that they want an immediate end to the weaponization of the justice system, including in this case. It’s clear: This incident should never have happened. As President Trump said in his historic victory speech, we can unite our country and work together for the betterment of our nation.”
