Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday agreed to delay Donald Trump’s hush-money sentencing, saying they need time to fight his efforts to overturn his conviction in the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court immunity ruling.
The sentencing judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, quickly agreed to push sentencing back to September 18, but only if Trump’s conviction survives this latest challenge.
“The matter is adjourned to September 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM for the imposition of sentence, if such is still necessary, or other proceedings,” Merchan wrote.
“Although we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file” a challenge to the May 30 conviction, prosecutors wrote earlier Tuesday, in a letter to Merchan.
The defense has asked Merchan’s permission to file a formal challenge to his conviction by July 10 — just one day before Trump’s original July 11 sentencing date.
Trump is set to be formally crowned as the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention on July 15 — an event that would have been marred by his being sentenced just four days prior.
If Trump loses this challenge and his conviction stands, it’s still a near certainty that he couldn’t be sentenced until weeks after the convention.
Prosecutors say they’ll need weeks to fight this latest hurdle.
“We respectfully request a deadline of July 24, 2024 — two weeks after defendant’s requested deadline — to file and serve a response” to Trump’s arguments, prosecutors wrote Merchan on Tuesday.
Merchan agreed to a July 10 deadline for defense to submit its challenge to Trump’s conviction, and a July 24 deadline for prosecutors to file their response.
The judge said he will issue a written decision September 6 on whether the case must be retried.
How Trump intends to fight his hush-money conviction
Trump is fighting his hush-money conviction one day after the nation’s highest court issued a 6-3 decision granting broad immunity from criminal prosecution to former presidents.
The landmark decision found former presidents are presumptively immune from prosecution for official acts.
But the decision goes further, saying that a former president’s official acts cannot be used against him, even in an otherwise legally-proper criminal prosecution.
It is here that Trump sees a possible way out of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide an election-eve hush-money payment to a porn star.
Monday’s SCOTUS decision “confirmed the defense position that DANY should not have been permitted to offer evidence at trial of President Trump’s official acts,” lead defense attorney Todd Blanche wrote the judge in a letter released Tuesday.
“Because of the complexity of the issues presented, President Trump does not object to an adjournment of the July 11, 2024 sentencing date in order to allow adequate time for full briefing, oral argument, and a decision,” Blanche wrote.
Trump’s team had raised the pending SCOTUS immunity decision with Merchan back in March, in a failed effort to get the trial delayed or to at least preclude any evidence involving “official acts.”
“In that filing, we objected to anticipated testimony from certain potential witnesses, evidence of President Trump’s social media posts and public statements, and a 2018 filing with the Office of Government Ethics,” Blanche wrote.
Read the defense letter describing why SCOTUS should invalidate Trump’s conviction here.
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