Donald Trump's sentencing for hush money case delayed until after US election
A judge has agreed to postpone Donald Trump's sentencing for his hush money case until after the November presidential election, for which Trump is running as the Republican nominee.
The sentencing was originally set to take place on Wednesday, September 18, but will now happen on Tuesday, November 26, several weeks after the US election.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan wrote that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance - however unwarranted - that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the defendant is a candidate”.
“The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution,” he added.
Trump's lawyers had long been pushing for the delay, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene.
They claimed sentencing the former president during his campaign would amount to election interference.
Judge Merchan is also considering a request by Trump's defence team to overturn the verdict on the grounds of a separate ruling, which said former presidents have a degree of immunity against criminal prosecution.
His lawyers argue a delayed sentencing would give him time to decide next steps after Judge Merchan rules on this request.
On Tuesday, a federal judge rejected Trump’s request to have the US District Court in Manhattan seize the case from Judge Merchan’s New York state court, in a bid to try and overturn the verdict.
Trump is appealing the federal court ruling.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 (£99,000) hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels claims she and Trump had a sexual encounter a decade earlier after they met at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe.
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Prosecutors argued the payment was part of a scheme to quash potentially compromising stories about Trump during his first presidential campaign.
Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels and was later reimbursed by Trump, whose company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.
Trump maintains that the stories were false, that reimbursements were for legal work and logged correctly, and that the case - brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat - was part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at damaging his current campaign.
In terms of sentencing, Trump could receive four years behind bars. Other potential sentences include probation, a fine or a conditional discharge, which would require Trump to stay out of trouble to avoid additional punishment.
Trump has pledged to appeal, but that cannot happen until he is sentenced.
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