A New York judge has delayed ruling on whether Donald Trump‘s hush money conviction should be overturned in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Judge Juan Merchan granted a stay of the current deadlines until Nov. 19, when prosecutors will spell out what they see as the “appropriate steps” going forward given Trump’s election victory. The judge had set today as the date when he would issue a ruling on whether to toss out Trump’s conviction.
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Earlier this year, Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to hush money payments made to porn actress Stormy Daniels. Sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 26.
Merchan had delayed sentencing until after the presidential election, but he also was reviewing a Supreme Court decision that presidents could not be held criminally liable for official acts while in office. Even though the hush money payments were made to Daniels before Trump took office, his legal team has argued that some of the key evidence in the case was covered by presidential immunity. Prosecutors pushed back on that notion, as Trump’s efforts to conceal the hush money payments were related to his 2016 presidential campaign, not his presidency.
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Emil Bove, Trump’s attorney, wrote in email to Merchan and prosecutors that a “stay, and dismissal, are necessary to avoid constitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern, which is the broader argument that we made to [prosecutors] on Friday.”
Matthew Colangelo, prosecutor in the case, wrote that “careful consideration” had to be made to “appropriately balance the competing interests if (1) a jury verdict of guilt following trial that has the presumption of regularity; and (2) the Office of the President.”
Last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the federal cases against Trump, also requested a stay of deadlines in light of the election results. Smith brought two separate cases against Trump — one for conspiring to remain in power after the 2020 election, the other for obstructing justice as he retained classified documents after leaving the White House.