Trump's New Jersey liquor-license hearing is delayed in latest ripple-effect benefit from SCOTUS immunity opinion
Reuters/Mike Segar
- Donald Trump's felony status has jeopardized his 3 golf club liquor licenses in New Jersey.
- A state hearing on his licenses in Bedminster and Colts Neck, set for Friday, has been delayed.
- NJ can't pull his licenses until after his NY sentencing, itself delayed by an immunity challenge.
The drinks will keep flowing at Donald Trump's New Jersey golf courses, at least for now, in the latest ripple-effect benefit from this month's Supreme Court presidential-immunity opinion.
Friday's hearing over the potential revocation of the liquor licenses for Trump National Bedminster and Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck has been delayed until at least September, New Jersey Office of the Attorney General announced Thursday.
The hearing will be pushed back due to the delay in Trump's sentencing in his hush money case, officials explained. Under New Jersey law, it's only after sentencing that a liquor license can be revoked for a felony conviction.
A new date for the liquor license hearing has not yet been set, according to officials with the state AG's office, which runs the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC.
A spokesperson said Friday's now-canceled hearing had been timed to take place a week after Trump's hush-money sentencing, originally set for July 11.
But Trump's sentencing is now delayed until September 18, as his lawyers and Manhattan prosecutors fight over what impact, if any, this month's Supreme Court presidential immunity opinion has on the criminal case.
Trump's side is trying to get the hush-money case tossed in its entirety.
"With the sentencing date moved to September, ABC will evaluate the impact on its hearing schedule and act accordingly," a spokesperson for the AG's office said.
"Nothing else about ABC's process, as outlined in the letter, has changed," the spokesperson said, signaling that their efforts to challenge Trump's licenses have not ended.
State officials said on June 28 that Trump's new felony record bars him from profiting from the two licenses, which were due for renewal June 30.
The bars at the Bedminster and Colts Neck clubs will remain open under an interim permit pending the yet-scheduled hearing, at which Trump's side will bear the burden of proof in demonstrating that he remains qualified to benefit from a liquor license.
The liquor license at Trump's third New Jersey course, Trump National Philadelphia — located 45 minutes outside that city in Pine Hill — was renewed by that borough on June 3, just four days after his guilty verdict on 34 felony business-falsification counts.
As Business Insider revealed last month, Trump's three Jersey liquor licenses are in his eldest son's name. Trump has said in a press statement that none of the liquor licenses at his properties are in his own name.
But the office of New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin found last month that the elder Trump is the beneficiary of the licenses.
"A review by ABC indicates that Mr. Trump maintains a direct beneficial interest in the three liquor licenses through the receipt of revenues and profits from them, as the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust," a press statement said last month.
The SCOTUS immunity opinion is barely two weeks old but has already paid high dividends to Trump, delaying his DC insurrection case while invalidating his Mar-a-Lago classified document case in Florida.
A July 24 deadline has been set for Manhattan prosecutors to respond to Trump's arguments that presidential immunity voids both his conviction and the indictment itself.