Despite reports suggesting a halt on Donald Trump’s sentencing in the criminal hush-money case, court records disclose that the sentencing is still slated for Nov. 26, although it remains uncertain whether the hearing will take place on that date.
Last week, Judge Juan Merchan was supposed to decide whether Trump’s 34 felony convictions would hold up considering the U.S. Supreme Court’s broad ruling on presidential immunity and Trump’s election victory. Instead, Judge Merchan accepted a combined request from the prosecution and defense to delay deadlines in the case, asking prosecutors to file their “view of appropriate steps going forward” with the court on Nov. 19, 2024.
Trump’s legal team has consistently requested for his convictions to be overturned and for the indictment against him to be dismissed, an argument that has gained strength since his election win. In court documents filed last week, Trump’s attorney stated, “The stay, and dismissal, are necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
Following the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in July, Trump’s lawyers have claimed that some of the evidence presented at the former and soon-to-be president’s criminal trial this year was incorrectly shown to the jury. The justices ruled that a sitting president is immune from prosecution for any official acts carried out while in office, and evidence of a president’s official acts cannot be used against them in a criminal case, even when the underlying conduct is personal.
Trump’s attorneys, Emil Bove and Todd Blanche, have stated in earlier court submissions that trial testimony about Trump’s interactions with former White House employees — former Communications Director Hope Hicks and former Director of White House Operations Madeleine Westerhout — should have been withheld from jurors.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, charges resulting from a $130,000 hush-money payment made by Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to adult content creator Stormy Daniels in October 2016.
Judge Merchan initially scheduled sentencing for July, but moved the hearing to Nov. 26, to avoid any perception of election interference. The payment to Daniels occurred ahead of Trump’s 2016 presidential election win, but his lawyers have argued that actions taken after he was in the White House should have been removed from the trial.
Trump also raised another issue — that evidence of his official acts as president tainted the indictment itself, based on such evidence being presented during the grand jury process. Specifically, Trump contended that the state improperly used several references to David Pecker, the former CEO of the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media Inc., in presenting its case to the grand jurors.
Countering the president-elect’s claims, New York prosecutors previously submitted court documents arguing that the evidence in question was merely a small part of a larger body of evidence.
The prosecutors are determined to challenge President-elect Trump’s attempt to reverse his criminal conviction, although they have shown a readiness to postpone his sentencing until after his presidential term concludes.
They encouraged Judge Merchan to explore alternatives to outright dismissal, such as delaying the proceedings until Trump exits the White House in 2029.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office requested Merchan establish a new deadline of December 9 for both parties to review the case and submit additional motions.
While it is unclear whether Merchan will overturn Trump’s felony convictions, it is highly unlikely that the judge will sentence the president-elect to any jail time just weeks before his second inauguration. “The odds of him going to jail are zero at this point,” Mark Bederow, a New York City criminal defense lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor, told USA Today.
Bederow also underscored that sending Trump to prison could incite further political unrest in an already deeply divided nation. Bederow stated, “If [Merchan] were to sentence [Trump], this country is going to get torn apart even further at the seams.”
On a federal level, special counsel Jack Smith has already started winding down prosecutions related to Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents and attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in line with the Justice Department’s long-standing rule against prosecuting sitting presidents.