Whether the hush money case against President-elect Trump will stand, or be dismissed, likely won’t be decided for weeks or even months. But the question that appears to be weighing heavily on Judge Juan Merchan: Can trump’s sentencing really be put off for four years? NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst reports.
The New York City judge overseeing President-elect Donald Trump's "hush money" case said there will be no sentencing next week, as had been previously scheduled, and he will hear arguments from the defense team as to why the case should be dismissed now that Trump is president-elect.
A sentencing was scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 26, but the sentencing has now been stayed and that date is adjourned, according to an order issued Friday by Judge Juan Merchan. No new date for a potential sentencing has been set, delaying that indefinitely, though it could be reimposed later.
The judge has asked the defense team to file its motion to dismiss by Dec. 2 and prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office will have until Dec. 9 to respond.
Trump was convicted in May in New York of 34 counts of falsifying business records, arising from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a hush money payment just before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.
In a court filing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office opposed dismissing Trump’s case, but prosecutors expressed openness to delaying his sentencing until after his forthcoming term.
“We have significant competing constitutional interests — the office of the presidency and all the complications that come with that, and on the other hand, the sanctity of the jury verdict," D.A. Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, said Wednesday while speaking to the Citizens Crime Commission, a local civic group.
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Trump's lawyers urged a judge Wednesday to scrap the case before he takes office in January.
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Echoing their stance since Trump's win, his lawyers argued in a letter that continuing with the case will interfere with the president-elect's preparations for returning to the White House and impede his ability to run the country.
The lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, said voters' decision to return Trump to office should take precedence over the opinion of prosecutors, known in court-speak as the "People of the State of New York."
“The Nation’s People issued a mandate that supersedes the motivations of (the district attorney’s) ‘People,’” Blanche and Bove wrote to Merchan. “This case must immediately be dismissed.”
Otherwise, they warned, protracted appeals would overlap with Trump’s second term.
“In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned," Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. "President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases. All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”
A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, the first of a former U.S. president. If the verdict stands and the case proceeds to sentencing, Trump could face a fine, probation or up to four years in prison.
