Justice Juan M. Merchan on Friday delayed the sentencing of former United States President Donald Trump, in his hush money trial until after the November election.
This was after the judge granted Trump a hard-won reprieve as he navigated the aftermath of his criminal conviction and the pressure of his presidential campaign.
Merchan, who is also weighing a defence request to overturn the verdict on immunity grounds, delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, three weeks after the final votes are cast in the presidential election.
The sentencing was initially scheduled for September 18, about seven weeks before election day.
The new date is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, according to the Associated Press.
The delay, the latest bit of good legal fortune for Trump, means the presidential election will be decided without voters knowing if the Republican nominee is going to jail.
In a four-page decision, Merchan explained 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,” the judge said, adding that writing his decision “should dispel any suggestion” otherwise.
Trump’s lawyers pushed for the delay on multiple fronts, petitioning the judge and asking a federal court to intervene. They argued that punishing the former president in the thick of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
Trump’s lawyers argued that delaying his sentencing until after the election would also allow him time to weigh the next steps after Merchan rules on the defence’s request to reverse his conviction and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
In his order Friday, Merchan delayed a decision on that until Nov. 12.
In addition to pushing back the sentencing until November 26, Merchan wrote that he would decide on Trump’s motion to vacate the verdict because of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision on November 12, which is also after the election.
Merchan wrote in his letter that the Supreme Court “rendered a historic and intervening decision” with its immunity ruling.
