judge-postpones-trump-hush-money-sentencing-until-sept

Donald Trump’s sentencing for his conviction on criminal charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star was delayed on Tuesday until September 18, less than seven weeks before the US election.

Justice Juan Merchan pushed back the sentencing date so he can weigh the former US president’s argument he should have been immune from prosecution under Monday’s landmark Supreme Court ruling that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for official acts.

The new timeline means Merchan could decide the Republican presidential candidate’s punishment, including whether to jail him, in the thick of the campaign season before the Nov. 5 election.

The sentencing had previously been set for July 11, just days before the July 15 kickoff of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Trump faces an uphill battle getting the hush money conviction overturned, since much of the conduct at issue in the case predated his time in office.

Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked Merchan to allow them to argue his conviction should be overturned due to the justices’ 6-3 ruling on July 1, which also held that evidence related to presidents’ official actions cannot be used to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions

In their letter to Merchan, defense lawyers argued that prosecutors had presented evidence involving Trump’s official acts as president, including social media posts he made and conversations he had while in the White House.

“This official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury,” lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.

Last year, Trump made a similar argument as part of an unsuccessful push to move the hush money case to federal court. In in July 2023, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote that the payment to Daniels “was a purely personal item.”

“Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a president’s official acts,” Hellerstein wrote.