New York judge calls off Trump hush money sentencing
President-elect Trump’s sentencing in his New York criminal case will not go forward as planned next week as his attorneys push to dismiss the prosecution following his election victory.
Judge Juan Merchan, who oversees the trial proceedings, announced the adjournment in a letter Friday.
The judge halted the case to accept additional written briefing on Trump’s argument that his return to the White House compels the court to toss his 34-count felony conviction entirely.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is opposing that request. Instead, Bragg floated that Merchan could freeze the proceedings while Trump is in office, meaning the conviction would remain on the books but sentencing wouldn’t occur until 2029, at the earliest.
Merchan ordered Trump to file his formal motion asking for dismissal by Dec. 2 and Bragg to respond by Dec. 9. The judge will then decide how to proceed.
Though both sides agreed to delay the sentencing, the new schedule aligns with Bragg’s request. Trump had asked for a slower timeline that would push the dismissal battle closer to his inauguration.
The Hill has reached out to the district attorney's office for comment.
Steven Cheung, Trump's campaign spokesperson and incoming White House communications director, called the ruling a "decisive win" for the former and future president.
"President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases," he said. "All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”
The former president’s criminal defense strategy long rested on delaying until after the election. Trump successfully staved off trial in his other three criminal prosecutions, and in the only case that did reach a verdict, the New York hush money case, he successfully pushed the sentencing until after voters headed to the ballot box.
The jury’s verdict made Trump the first former U.S. president convicted of a felony. When he returns to the White House, he would become the first person to assume the nation’s highest office with such a criminal record — if the conviction stands.
With his White House victory secured, Trump’s team now believes his criminal cases must be tossed.
They have moved most aggressively to pull the plug on the hush money case, given that Trump’s sentencing date of Nov. 26 was rapidly approaching on.
“[D]ismissal of this case is necessary under the Constitution and federal law to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power — and in the interests of justice — following President Trump's victory in the Electoral College and the popular vote in the 2024 Presidential election,” Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, whom the president-elect recently nominated to senior Justice Department roles, wrote in a letter last week.
The jury of 12 New Yorkers in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money deal his ex-fixer made with a porn actor ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Though Trump could face jail time, such a sentence is rare for first-time offenders on charges like his, and he is expected to seek a delay of any punishment pending a lengthy appeal.
Before sentencing, Merchan was also set to rule on whether the verdict can stand following the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision. Merchan delayed his ruling — and the sentencing — until shortly after the election and then put it on hold upon Trump’s electoral win.
Both will remain on hold at least until the judge decides how to proceed in the wake of Trump’s election.
His imminent return to the White House has already pumped the brakes on his other criminal prosecutions.
Courts agreed to special counsel Jack Smith’s requests to halt his federal election subversion case and his appeal seeking to revive his documents case as prosecutors assess how to wind down the cases.
In Georgia, where Trump is accused of attempting to subvert the state’s 2020 presidential election results, an appeals court without explanation took a scheduled oral argument in a defense challenge off the calendar.
Updated at 11:45 a.m. EST