Judge Juan Merchan declared on Friday that former President Donald Trump will not be sentenced in his New York criminal case until after the 2024 election. He stated that part of his reasoning for delaying the sentencing was to avoid seeming to influence the outcome of the presidential campaign.
Response to a plea by Trump's attorneys to delay the sentencing, Merchan wrote in a new four-page letter that he will sentence Trump on November 26 - if necessary.
In May, Trump was found guilty on 34 charges of fabricating financial documents to conceal the payment of hush money to an adult film star who claimed to have had an affair with the former president. However, because to the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity, Trump's attorneys successfully argued to have the conviction overturned, putting his sentence on hold for several months.
In delaying sentencing, Merchan mentioned the impending presidential election and said that he was doing so in part to prevent the impression that the sentence was meant to affect the election in November.
"Any hint that a ruling or sentence would have been issued by the court with the intention of favoring or disadvantageously affecting any political party or candidate for any office should be dispelled by adjourning the decision on the motion and sentencing, if such is required," Merchan wrote.
Thanking Merchan for his delaying tactics, Trump stated that his sentence will only be imposed "if necessary."
"I am really grateful for what the judge said in his letter today. He used the phrase "if necessary" in the decision-making process, even though it shouldn't have been used. Trump stated, "This case should rightfully be terminated immediately," during a North Carolina Fraternal Order of Police gathering. Additionally, the former president made up the claim that he "did nothing wrong" and that his sentence was "postponed."
Merchan wrote that he would rule on Trump's move to overturn the judgment due to the Supreme Court's immunity ruling on November 12, which is also after the election, in addition to delaying the sentencing until November 26. In his letter, Merchan stated that the Supreme Court's judgment on immunity "rendered a historic and intervening decision."
"There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA's election interference witch hunt," said Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, in response to the ruling.
"This case and all the other Harris-Biden hoaxes should be dismissed, as ordered by the US Supreme Court," Cheung declared.
A representative for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg released the following statement: "Denver Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies by a jury including 12 New Yorkers in a timely and unanimous manner. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office is ready to sentence someone when the court reschedules.
Merchan highlighted the district attorney's office's lack of opposition to postponing Trump's punishment in his decision on Friday.
The choice to postpone the sentence until after the election on November 5th is a another example of the continual delays in all of Trump's criminal proceedings since his four indictments in 2023 (in New York, Florida, Georgia, and Washington, DC). The other two January 6-related lawsuits are in limbo and won't proceed before the election, while the judge rejected the Florida classified papers case in July. The special counsel is appealing that ruling.
This year, just one charge proceeded to trial—the New York hush money case, which resulted in a guilty conviction in May. Currently, the trial's sentencing will not take place until after the election, if at all, with the possibility of a jail term being imposed hanging over it.
Merchan postponed the former president's punishment until after the election, recognizing the historic significance of the hush money prosecution.
"This Court has ruled over this issue from its beginning, from arraignment to jury verdict, and a multitude of motions and other things in between. It stands alone, in a unique place in our Nation's history. If this Court decides to move forward with the case after carefully weighing the Supreme Court's ruling in the Trump case, it will have to make one of the most important and challenging decisions a trial court judge has to make: determining the appropriate sentence for a defendant found guilty of crimes by a unanimous jury of his peers, wrote Merchan.
He went on, "The jury members worked hard on this case, and their decision needs to be honored and handled in a way that doesn't get lost in the significance of the impending presidential election." "The Defendant has the right to a sentencing hearing that respects and protects his constitutional rights, if one is necessary."
Merchan has delayed the case's punishment for the second time. In response to a request from Trump's attorneys to overturn the guilty decision in light of the Supreme Court's decision regarding presidential immunity, Merchan postponed his original July sentence by two months.Citing the Supreme Court's ruling this summer on presidential immunity, Trump attempted to transfer the state case into federal court last week. However, a federal judge swiftly rejected the motion a few days later, disregarding additional arguments from the Manhattan District Attorney or Trump. The decision is being appealed by Trump's attorneys.
Following the filing of that federal petition, Merchan was contacted by Trump's legal team asking him to hold off on making a ruling about presidential immunity until the case concluded in federal court. In his letter on Friday, Merchan mentioned the efforts to transfer the matter to federal court.
Due to the Supreme Court's decision on presidential immunity, some evidence from the trial, including the testimony of former White House aide Hope Hicks and tweets Trump sent while in office, should not have been presented to the jury, according to Trump's attorneys, who have argued that the indictment should be dropped or at the very least that his conviction should be overturned.
The prosecution has retorted that the evidence used in the trial was "overwhelming" and that the conviction should stand.
On September 16, Merchan had declared that he will make a decision about immunity. If needed, he intended to sentence Trump in two days.
However, Trump's attorneys requested that Merchan reschedule that date for after the election, partly on the grounds that they wouldn't have enough time to file an appeal of the judge's ruling. In response, prosecutors responded that they would leave the scheduling up to Merchan.
Due to the postponement, Trump's criminal conviction—which consumed most of his time and the news cycle in the spring—won't resurface as a major issue in the closing weeks of the campaign. It may also imply that Merchan's sentence won't be affected by the outcome of the election.
Trump may get a term of up to four years in jail, but Merchan is not obligated to do so. Instead, he may decide to impose a lighter punishment, such as probation, house arrest, community service, or a fine.
