Judge delays decision on Trump’s hush money case

A New York judge delayed a Tuesday decision on the dismissal of President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money conviction after the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling and Trump’s election win last week.

At the request of prosecutors and defense attorneys, Judge Juan Merchan hit pause on the court calendar for a week while prosecutors decide how to proceed after Trump’s win over Vice President Kamala Harris last Tuesday. 

Merchan agreed to freeze the case until Nov. 19, according to court records posted Tuesday. That gives prosecutors more time to respond to Trump’s request the case be dismissed entirely after his election win.

“The stay, and dismissal, are necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern,” Trump attorney Emil Bove wrote in an email to the judge.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office agreed to delay the proceedings while it assesses how to respond to Trump’s request for dismissal.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence to the People on Friday require careful consideration,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote to the judge.

Merchan – who had already delayed Trump’s sentencing for several months ahead of the election – was set to decide Tuesday if Trump’s conviction stands after the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity decision in July.

After the high court’s decision, Trump’s defense team had asked Merchan to dismiss the case. Bragg’s office argued that the ruling from the nation’s highest court is unrelated to Trump’s conviction on charges that he illegally paid hush money to keep women quiet about alleged sexual encounters and then covered up the payments as legal expenses during his 2016 campaign.

The judge said that if Trump’s dismissal motion fails, “the law requires the imposition of sentence following a guilty verdict without unreasonable delay.”

Prosecutors said they are trying to balance Trump’s next term in the White House with the jury’s verdict in the case.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence … require careful consideration to ensure that any further steps in this proceeding appropriately balance (1) a jury verdict of guilt following trial that has presumption of regularity and (2) the Office of the President,” prosecutors Michael Colangelo wrote.

Prosecutors said they will decide how to proceed by Nov. 19. 

In late May, a Manhattan jury convicted Trump on all counts in his hush money case. Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records for disguising hush money payments to an adult film actress as legal costs ahead of the 2016 election. Under New York state law, falsifying business records in the first degree is a Class E felony with a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

In July, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents and former presidents have absolute immunity for actions related to core constitutional powers and presumptive immunity for official actions. The ruling said the president has no immunity for unofficial conduct.