Judge delays Trump’s hush money sentencing until at least September after high court immunity ruling

Photo: The Canadian Press

FILE - Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg speaks to the media after a jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, May 30, 2024, in New York. Bragg won't oppose delaying former President Donald Trump's sentencing in his hush money case after the Supreme Court immunity ruling. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

UPDATE 12:50 p.m.

Former President Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed until at least September after the judge agreed Tuesday to weigh the possible impact of a new Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Trump had been scheduled to face sentencing July 11 on his New York conviction on felony charges of falsifying business records. He denies any wrongdoing.

The postponement sets the sentencing for Sept. 18 at the earliest, well after this month's Republican National Convention, where Trump is set formally to accept the party’s nomination for president in this year’s race.

There was no immediate comment from Trump's campaign or Manhattan prosecutors, who brought the case.

A Supreme Court ruling Monday granted broad immunity protections to presidents, while also restricting prosecutors from citing any official acts as evidence in trying to prove a president’s unofficial actions violated the law.

Hours after it was issued, Trump’s attorney requested that New York Judge Juan M. Merchan set aside the jury’s guilty verdict and delay the sentencing to consider how the high court’s ruling and could affect the hush money case.

He wrote that he'll rule Sept. 6, and the next date in the case would be Sept. 18, “if such is still necessary.”

In their filing Monday, defense attorneys argued that Manhattan prosecutors had placed “highly prejudicial emphasis on official-acts evidence,” including Trump's social media posts and witness testimony about Oval Office meetings.

Prosecutors said before the judge's ruling Tuesday that they believed those arguments were “without merit” but that they wouldn't oppose adjourning the sentencing for two weeks as the judge considers the matter.

Trump was convicted May 30 on 34 counts of falsifying business records arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.

Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006 after meeting him at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. Trump has repeatedly denied that claim, saying at his June 27 debate with President Joe Biden: “I didn’t have sex with a porn star.”

Prosecutors said the Daniels payment was part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who might have gone public during the campaign with embarrassing stories alleging he had extramarital sex. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.

Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment. Trump is the first ex-president convicted of a crime.

ORIGINAL 10:55 a.m.

Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday they would not oppose Donald Trump’s request to delay the sentencing in his hush money trial as he seeks to have the conviction overturned following a Supreme Court ruling that granted broad immunity protections to presidents.

In a letter filed with the New York court, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said they would be open to a two-week delay in the July 11 sentencing in order to file a response to Trump’s motions.

“Although we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request” to delay the sentencing pending determination of the motion, the prosecutors wrote.

The letter came one day after Trump’s attorney requested the judge delay the sentencing as he weighs the high court’s decision and how it could influence the New York case.

The lawyers argue that the Supreme Court’s decision confirmed a position the defense raised earlier in the case that prosecutors should have been precluded from introducing some evidence the Trump team said constituted official presidential acts, according to the letter.

If a delay is indeed granted, it would push a sentencing decision past the Republican National Convention, which will kick off in Milwaukee on July 15. That means that Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee, could become the Republican presidential candidate while it remains unknown what sentence he will face.

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.