Judge to decide Friday whether to delay Trump's sentencing in hush money case
The former president is currently scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18.
The New York judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's criminal hush money case will decide Friday whether to delay his sentencing, according to a court filing Thursday.
Trump is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18 after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election. He faces up to four years in prison.
Trump had asked the judge in the case, Juan Merchan, to postpone the sentencing until after the election, and Merchan said Thursday that he would make the decision on Friday.
The timing of the judge's decision was revealed by prosecutors in a letter to a federal appeals court that is considering whether to intervene in the case.
"The judge has now informed the parties that the decision will be rendered tomorrow, September 6, 2024," the letter said.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Trump's bid to move his criminal case to federal court. The next day, in a 28-page filing, Trump's attorneys asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to stay Judge Hellerstein's order -- a move that would delay Trump's criminal case, including his sentencing, from moving forward.
"Absent the requested stay, President Trump and the American people will suffer irreparable harm," defense attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche wrote.
In a filing Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney's office asked the court to reject Trump's request, saying there was no reason for the appellate court to get involved.
"For one thing, state court is already considering defendant's request to defer a ruling on his post-trial motion and to delay the sentencing hearing until after the election," Steven Wu, chief of appeals in the Manhattan DA's office, said in a letter filed to the court.
Trump's lawyers claimed in the appeal that the former president's case belongs in federal court because the allegations and evidence in the case relate to Trump's official acts as president -- an argument defense attorneys said was bolstered by the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.
In their filing, Trump's attorneys emphasized the "irreparable harm" of allowing the sentencing to proceed because it could result in Trump's "unconstitutional incarceration while the 2024 Presidential election is imminent."
"Unlawfully incarcerating President Trump in the final weeks of the Presidential election, while early voting is ongoing, would irreparably harm the First Amendment rights of President Trump and voters located far beyond New York County," defense attorneys wrote.
Also Friday, a panel of judges on the same federal appeals court is set to consider Trump's appeal of a 2023 civil judgment that found him liable for the sexual abuse of magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages.