Trump hush-money sentence will be delayed as he leverages Supreme Court immunity to fight his conviction
Manhattan prosecutors agreed to delay Donald Trump's hush-money sentencing.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
- Donald Trump is using his broad new immunity powers to fight his hush-money conviction.
- A July 11 sentencing will be pushed back to a yet-determined date as both sides argue over a possible retrial.
- Prosecutors say Trump's efforts are "without merit," but they are agreeing to a brief delay.
Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday agreed to delay Donald Trump's hush-money sentencing, saying they need time to fight his efforts to overturn his conviction in the wake of Monday's Supreme Court immunity ruling.
"Although we believe defendant's arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file" a challenge to the May 30 conviction, prosecutors wrote in a letter to the sentencing judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
The defense has asked Merchan's permission to file a formal challenge to his conviction by July 10 — just one day before Trump's original July 11 sentencing date.
Trump is set to be formally crowned as the GOP's presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention on July 15 — an event that would have been marred by his being sentenced just four days prior.
If Trump loses this challenge and his conviction stands, it's still a near certainty that he couldn't be sentenced until weeks after the convention.
Prosecutors say they'll need weeks to fight this latest hurdle.
"We respectfully request a deadline of July 24, 2024 — two weeks after defendant's requested deadline — to file and serve a response" to Trump's arguments, prosecutors wrote Merchan on Tuesday.
A firm schedule for filings, and a new sentencing date, will likely be set soon, once Merchan agrees to let Trump challenge the verdict, a formality the judge may grant later Tuesday.
How Trump intends to fight his hush-money conviction
Trump is fighting his hush-money conviction one day after the nation's highest court issued a 6-3 decision granting broad immunity from criminal prosecution to former presidents.
The landmark decision found former presidents are presumptively immune from prosecution for official acts.
But the decision goes further, saying that a former president's official acts cannot be used against him, even in an otherwise legally-proper criminal prosecution.
It is here that Trump sees a possible way out of his conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide an election-eve hush-money payment to a porn star.
Monday's SCOTUS decision "confirmed the defense position that DANY should not have been permitted to offer evidence at trial of President Trump's official acts," lead defense attorney Todd Blanche wrote the judge in a letter released Tuesday.
"Because of the complexity of the issues presented, President Trump does not object to an adjournment of the July 11, 2024 sentencing date in order to allow adequate time for full briefing, oral argument, and a decision," Blanche wrote.
Trump's team had raised the pending SCOTUS immunity decision with Merchan back in March, in a failed effort to get the trial delayed or to at least preclude any evidence involving "official acts."
"In that filing, we objected to anticipated testimony from certain potential witnesses, evidence of President Trump's social media posts and public statements, and a 2018 filing with the Office of Government Ethics," Blanche wrote.
Read the defense letter describing why SCOTUS should invalidate Trump's conviction here.