The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case ordered on Friday that sentencing be delayed indefinitely, a legal win for the President-elect as he prepares to return to the White House.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Prosecutors argued that concealing the alleged tryst was intended to help him win his first run for the White House.
Trump, who had been scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, had fought against any effort to sentence him before his return to the presidency in January.
“It is ordered that the joint application for a stay of sentencing is granted to the extent that the November 26, 2024 date is adjourned,” said judge Juan Merchan in an order.
Trump’s legal team have cited a Supreme Court ruling giving presidents sweeping immunity for official acts.
That landmark ruling saw the court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, decide that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
– ‘Motion to dismiss’ –
Ahead of the election, Trump’s lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move which prosecutors have firmly rejected.
On Friday the judge granted Trump leave to seek to have the conviction thrown out, likely meaning several further hearings that could be delayed once Trump is sworn in.
“The defendant’s request for leave to file a motion to dismiss… is granted,” added Merchan’s order.
In a separate 2020 election interference case, Special Counsel Jack Smith moved to vacate deadlines, delaying the case indefinitely — but not yet dropping it outright.
The move was in line with long-standing Department of Justice policy not to prosecute sitting US presidents.
The Manhattan prosecutor previously acknowledged in correspondence with the court that “these are unprecedented circumstances” and called for the competing interests of the jury’s verdict and Trump’s election to be balanced.
Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr previously said that both the New York case as well as others around the country had been “plainly brought for political purposes (and) have now been extensively aired and rejected in the court of public opinion.”
Trump has repeatedly derided the hush money case as a witch hunt, saying it “should be rightfully terminated.”
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases: one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
AFP