Judge delays Trump sentencing in hush money case until November
A New York judge has delayed former President Donald Trump's sentencing on felony criminal charges until Nov. 26.
A New York judge has delayed former President Donald Trump's sentencing on felony criminal charges until Nov. 26.
"This is not a decision this Court makes lightly but it is the decision which in this Court's view, best advances the interests of justice," Judge Juan Merchan wrote in the decision handed down Friday.
Merchan issued the ruling after Trump's attorneys had asked him to postpone the Sept. 18 sentencing until after the Nov. 5 election to allow them to appeal a pending ruling involving presidential immunity.
That ruling was expected by Sept. 16 — just two days before what would have been the first ever sentencing of a former president on criminal charges. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
“A single business day is an unreasonably short period of time” for such an appeal, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued in an Aug. 14 filing. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”
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