Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday agreed to delay Donald Trump’s hush-money sentencing, saying they want time to battle his efforts to overturn his conviction within the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court docket immunity ruling.
The sentencing decide, New York Supreme Court docket Justice Juan Merchan, rapidly agreed to push sentencing again to September 18, however provided that Trump’s conviction survives this newest problem.
“The matter is adjourned to September 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM for the imposition of sentence, if such remains to be vital, or different proceedings,” Merchan wrote.
“Though we imagine defendant’s arguments to be with out benefit, we don’t oppose his request for depart to file” a problem to the Could 30 conviction, prosecutors wrote earlier Tuesday, in a letter to Merchan.
The protection has requested Merchan’s permission to file a proper problem to his conviction by July 10 — simply in the future earlier than Trump’s authentic July 11 sentencing date.
Trump is ready to be formally topped because the GOP’s presidential nominee at the Republican Nationwide Conference on July 15 — an occasion that may have been marred by his being sentenced simply 4 days prior.
If Trump loses this problem and his conviction stands, it is nonetheless a close to certainty that he could not be sentenced till weeks after the conference.
Prosecutors say they will want weeks to battle this newest hurdle.
“We respectfully request a deadline of July 24, 2024 — two weeks after defendant’s requested deadline — to file and serve a response” to Trump’s arguments, prosecutors wrote Merchan on Tuesday.
Merchan agreed to a July 10 deadline for protection to submit its problem to Trump’s conviction, and a July 24 deadline for prosecutors to file their response.
The decide stated he’ll difficulty a written resolution September 6 on whether or not the case have to be retried.
How Trump intends to battle his hush-money conviction
Trump is combating his hush-money conviction in the future after the nation’s highest court docket issued a 6-3 resolution granting broad immunity from felony prosecution to former presidents.
The landmark resolution discovered former presidents are presumptively immune from prosecution for official acts.
However the resolution goes additional, saying {that a} former president’s official acts can’t be used towards him, even in an in any other case legally-proper felony prosecution.
It’s right here that Trump sees a doable means out of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data to cover an election-eve hush-money cost to a porn star.
Monday’s SCOTUS resolution “confirmed the protection place that DANY mustn’t have been permitted to supply proof at trial of President Trump’s official acts,” lead protection legal professional Todd Blanche wrote the decide in a letter launched Tuesday.
“Due to the complexity of the problems introduced, President Trump doesn’t object to an adjournment of the July 11, 2024 sentencing date with the intention to enable satisfactory time for full briefing, oral argument, and a call,” Blanche wrote.
Trump’s crew had raised the pending SCOTUS immunity resolution with Merchan again in March, in a failed effort to get the trial delayed or to a minimum of preclude any proof involving “official acts.”
“In that submitting, we objected to anticipated testimony from sure potential witnesses, proof of President Trump’s social media posts and public statements, and a 2018 submitting with the Workplace of Authorities Ethics,” Blanche wrote.
Learn the protection letter describing why SCOTUS ought to invalidate Trump’s conviction right here.
