Judge Postpones Trump’s Hush Money Sentencing Until After The Election

After months of delays, a New York judge set a sentencing date Friday for former President Donald Trump, who was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star in the waning days of the 2016 presidential election.

New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan set a new sentencing date for Nov. 26, after the 2024 presidential election.

Merchan explained his rationale in a letter to the legal counsel, acknowledging that sentencing a former president who’s currently seeking office again is “fraught with complexities.”

He decided to postpone the hearing, he said, to avoid any appearance of “giving advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for” Trump.

Merchan further emphasized he wanted “to avoid any appearance ― however unwarranted ― that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”

Merchan has already delayed the sentencing once.

Trump was initially going to be sentenced July 11. But Merchan pushed the date back to Sept. 18 after Trump’s lawyers urged him to reconsider the verdict in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July ruling that presidents are immune from prosecution for “official” acts.

Merchan said he would issue a ruling on that argument by Sept. 16.

Trump has repeatedly sought to delay and derail the proceedings, most recently by asking a federal court to seize the case from the state. The request was denied.

Had they been successful, Trump’s lawyers said they would have attempted to dismiss the case, again citing the Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of scheming to falsify business records to conceal hush money payments to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose allegations of an affair, had they become public, could have upended his 2016 presidential bid.

Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in jail, though Merchan has plenty of latitude in deciding what’s appropriate. Trump could be sentenced to anything from probation to community service to incarceration.

Opining on a different case, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told The New York Times that “President Trump believes anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars.”