President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his criminal hush money case over a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels was indefinitely delayed Friday by state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
In a brief order, the Manhattan judge confirmed Trump’s sentencing would not go ahead next Tuesday and set a new schedule to consider arguments about how to proceed in light of his election win.
Merchan ordered Trump’s lawyers to file their new motion to dismiss the case by Dec. 2. He said the Manhattan district attorney’s office must respond by Dec. 9.
The sentencing had not been expected to go forward next week after prosecutors and Trump’s lawyers jointly requested a delay of all deadlines in the case following Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 presidential election. Friday’s ruling formalizes the sentencing being adjourned.
Trump’s lawyers previewed their upcoming motion to get the case tossed in a filing this week, arguing that the decision made by voters on Election Day mattered more than that of the jury who found him guilty of felonies this year.
“Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, who Trump has tapped for top positions in the Department of Justice, wrote.
In separate filings to the judge this week, prosecutors said they planned to fight Trump’s renewed efforts to get the verdict tossed but conceded Merchan may need to consider pushing back sentencing until Trump is out of office in 2029.
Trump, 78, was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsification of business records on May 30, stemming from his reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 election. Jurors found it was part of a scheme carried out the year before the election that sought to hide unflattering information about his past from voters.
The Manhattan DA’s office declined to comment. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung, in a statement, called the decision “a decisive win for President Trump.”