Prosecutors who secured a historic criminal conviction of Donald Trump signaled Tuesday they would accept a new delay for sentencing, as the judge deliberated how best to proceed against the US president-elect.
Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with porn star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Judge Juan Merchan was widely expected to rule Tuesday on how to proceed with the case following Trump’s election win, and his decision could now come at any time.
The options open to the justice include an outright dismissal, an indefinite delay to sentencing, or the imposition of punishment before inauguration day. He could also order a retrial for a future date.
Trump is slated to be sentenced on November 26, but his legal team’s efforts to have the conviction thrown out will almost certainly see that date pushed back — or scrapped altogether.
His lawyers have argued that a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court, with a 6-3 conservative majority, that US presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office applies in the hush money case.
Ahead of the election, Trump’s team moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move which prosecutors continue to reject.
However prosecutors on Tuesday said that “consideration must be given to various… options” other than throwing out the case.
They could include “deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of the defendant’s upcoming presidential term” — opening the door to Trump escaping punishment until 2029.
If Merchan decides to throw out the case on the basis of Trump’s pleas, there will be no sentencing.
– ‘Must be dismissed’ –
One of Trump’s lawyers, Emil Bove, who is in line for a job in the Department of Justice in the incoming administration, said last week that “the stay and dismissal (of the case) are necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
Bove pointed to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s decision to vacate deadlines in a 2020 election interference case, delaying it indefinitely — but not yet dropping it outright.
Smith’s move in the federal case is in step with long-standing Department of Justice policy not to prosecute sitting US presidents.
Thomas Goldstein, the publisher of SCOTUSblog, a leading legal site, wrote in a New York Times editorial the Manhattan prosecution “seems to be driven by politics and hatred of Mr Trump. That reinforces why (it) must be dismissed.”
Trump has repeatedly derided the hush money case as a witch hunt, saying it “should be rightfully terminated.”
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases: one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
“One of the many troubling things about Trump’s reelection is that he will largely avoid accountability in his four criminal cases,” said former prosecutor Randall Eliason.
He called for sentencing to proceed, but for judge Merchan to fashion a sentence that would not interfere with Trump’s duties as commander-in-chief.
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