Manhattan DA agrees to delay Trump’s hush money sentencing
Donald Trump
Manhattan prosecutors will not oppose Donald Trump’s request to delay his sentencing in his hush money trial after the Supreme Court ruled that the former president has “absolute” immunity from criminal prosecution for “official” acts as president.
In a letter to Justice Juan Merchan on Tuesday, prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said Trump’s arguments are “without merit” but they do not oppose his request to push back the sentencing date as he files his legal arguments.
Bragg’s office wants at least two weeks to file a response, requesting a deadline of July 24.
That’s two weeks after Trump’s court date. He is currently scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
Trump’s attorneys sent a letter to the judge on Monday in the hopes of delaying his sentencing and blocking his guilty verdict.
The letter arrived within hours after a ruling from the nation’s high court that shields Trump and any other presidents from criminal prosecution for actions considered “official” duties while in office.
“No comment. And there is nothing public yet to share,” Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche told The Independent on Monday.
Prosecutors are also imminently expected to submit their recommendations to the court for Trump’s sentence, which is likely to be the only criminally consequential action against the former president before Election Day.
Judge Merchan will ultimately set the sentence. Trump could face up to several years in jail, or probation, community service, hefty fines or some combination of those terms. Judge Merchan will likely also pull from guidance from Trump’s interview with a New York probation officer last month.
Trump was convicted on May 30 on all 34 counts against him after jurors deliberated for roughly two days.
The former president falsified business records in connection with a scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by paying hush money to an adult film star whose story about having sex with Trump threatened to derail his campaign.
On Monday, Trump claimed that the Supreme Court’s decision “should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me,” including “the New York Hoaxes” — his hush money case, the civil fraud judgment that has him on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars, and a jury’s verdict in a federal defamation trial.
His attorneys argued that the hush money case “should never have been put before a jury” following the Supreme Court’s ruling. They requested a deadline of July 10 to file a motion based on the high court’s decision.
The deadline for post-conviction filings ended last month, and it is unclear what argument Trump’s attorneys would present to the court based on a relatively narrow ruling from the Supreme Court.
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