New York Judge Delays Ruling on Trump’s Criminal Conviction in “Hush Money Case”
A judge in New York has postponed a decision originally set for Tuesday, November 12th, following the Supreme Court’s ruling in July regarding presidential immunity. The ruling is in relation to whether the New York court should overturn the criminal conviction of then-President Trump in the “hush money case.”
Court records released on Tuesday showed that presiding Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay the decision until November 19th. Trump’s lawyers requested the extension, arguing that since Trump was elected president, the case should be dismissed entirely.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office, led by Alvin Bragg, also agreed to the delay. Prosecutors wrote to the judge expressing their consent to postpone making a ruling on dismissing the case in order to have more time to consider how to address the subsequent issues.
Assistant district attorney Matthew Colangelo acknowledged in an email to the court that this was an unprecedented situation. He stated that prosecutors need to weigh the “conflict of interest” between the jury’s verdict and the presidential position.
Judge Merchan had previously indicated he would make two rulings on Tuesday: one on whether to overturn the guilty verdict against Trump, and the other on whether to proceed with sentencing Trump as planned on November 26th.
Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, argued in a letter to the judge that the case must be completely dismissed “to avoid unconstitutionally impairing President Trump’s ability to govern.”
A spokesperson for Trump’s campaign team, Steven Cheung, welcomed the ruling delay. In a statement, he said that Trump’s election victory “clearly shows that the American people want to immediately end the weaponization of our judicial system, including this case that should never have been brought.”
The “hush money case,” formally known as “People of the State of New York v. Trump” or “People v. Trump,” relates to allegations of Trump paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign to conceal an extramarital affair.
In late May this year, a New York jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts, including a felony charge of falsifying business records, making him the first former US president to be convicted of a crime. Trump has denied all charges and vowed to appeal.
On July 1st, the US Supreme Court ruled in a federal criminal case brought by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith against Trump that a president cannot be prosecuted for official acts but only for private acts, recognizing a certain level of immunity from criminal prosecution for the president. This ruling is one of the legal grounds being considered by the New York judge in deciding whether to overturn the judgment in the “hush money case.”