JUST IN: Judge Delays Trump Hush Money Sentencing As Lawyers Seek To Get Case Thrown Out
President-elect Donald Trump was scheduled to be sentenced next week for dozens of convictions in the New York hush money case, but Judge Juan Merchan granted a delay ahead of Trump’s team arguing the case should be dismissed entirely.
Trump’s lawyers are scheduled to make arguments for dismissing the case by Dec. 2 while prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. Merchan previously delayed sentencing until after the election.
CNN’s Paula Reid reported the news on Friday and noted there are a number of issues still looming over Trump’s convictions, including if there is a direct effect from the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
“We knew this was coming because there have been a lot of developments in the case in recent weeks, including trump’s defense team making it clear that they’re going to make a move to try to dismiss this case. They were successful in getting the district attorney’s office to agree to delay sentencing as long as far out as when trump leaves the white house for the second time,” she reported.
Trump was found guilty on more than 30 charges of falsifying business records for the purpose of covering up an affair with adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Trump continues to deny any direct knowledge of payments made to Daniels and he’s also denied the affair ever happened.
Trump’s team has every intention of trying to get the convictions tossed, something Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has told Merchan he is against. In a filing, the district attorney’s office agreed to delays in the trial, but suggested Trump could be sentenced as far out as the end of his second term in the White House.
“No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on unofficial conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” the filing reads.
Watch above via CNN.
