Judge Juan Merchan ruled Friday that former President Donald Trump’s sentencing date will be postponed until after the election.
Trump was set to be sentenced on Sept. 18, but Merchan pushed the date, “if necessary,” to Nov. 26, according to an order. Merchan wrote that the court is a “fair, impartial and apolitical institution,” noting his order “should dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and/or any candidate for any office.”
“This matter is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history, and this Court has presided over it since its inception – from arraignment to jury verdict and a plenitude of motions and other matters in-between,” Merchan wrote. “Were this Court to decide, after careful consideration of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump, that this case should proceed, it will be faced with one of the most critical and difficult decisions a trial court judge faces – the sentencing of a defendant found guilty of crimes by a unanimous jury of his peers.”
In August, Trump’s attorneys asked Merchan to postpone sentencing to allow Trump to “pursue state and federal appellate options,” if Merchan decides not to toss the jury’s verdict based on the Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity.
“Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in August.
Trump initially was set to be sentenced on July 11, but Merchan postponed the date after the Supreme Court’s ruling.
A Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May on 34 counts for falsifying business records related to reimbursing his attorney for a nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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