New York prosecutors told the judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday that his sentencing should be delayed while the president-elect’s lawyers present additional legal arguments seeking to dismiss the case.
The motion, which comes from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, must be signed by a judge. Juan Merchan to be official. Merchan agreed to previous requests from prosecutors seeking delays.
Prosecutors said they would challenge Trump’s efforts to dismiss the case, but agreed they were in uncharted territory when it comes to punishing a president and acknowledged his sentence may have to be carried out after his term in office.
“The people deeply respect the Office of the President, take into account the demands and obligations of the presidency, and recognize that the inauguration of the defendant will raise unprecedented legal questions. We also deeply respect the central role of the jury in our constitutional system,” their petition reads.
“Given the need to balance competing constitutional interests, it is necessary to consider various options to avoid dismissal that would address any concerns about delaying post-trial criminal proceedings during the presidency, such as postponing all remaining criminal cases. The end of the upcoming presidential term of the defendant,” the document says.
Prosecutors said they would agree to suspend the sentence for “two reasons.”
“First, as a practical matter, Defendant’s stated plan to seek immediate dismissal and interlocutory appeals would result in a stay of proceedings in any event; Staying the proceedings pending this Court’s disposition of the motion to dismiss would thus avoid unnecessary litigation. Second, proceeding with sentencing now will not avoid the new immunity issue that Defendant intends to raise,” the motion states.
Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, called the address “a complete and decisive victory for President Trump and the American people who elected him with a landslide.” The Manhattan DA has admitted that this Witch Hunt cannot continue. The illegal action has now been stopped, and President Trump’s legal team is moving to get him fired once and for all.”
Mercha was originally scheduled to sentence Trump later this month 34 criminal cases alleged that he had falsified business records, but that conclusion was called into question last week after the DA’s office asked a judge to temporarily halt the proceedings in light of Trump’s influence. electoral victory on business.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said they made the request after “a series of arguments” from Trump’s legal team that it was improper to proceed with the case.
“The People agree that these are unprecedented cases, and the arguments raised by defense counsel in Friday’s public correspondence require careful consideration of any next steps in this process to appropriately balance the competing interests of (1) a jury guilty verdict. further judicial review with presumption of legality; and (2) the Office of the President,” Colangelo wrote in a Nov. 10 letter to the judge.
The letter comes two days before Merchan is scheduled to rule earlier this year on whether to overturn the conviction based on the US Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. A ruling against Trump in the case would allow the judge to proceed with his sentencing, tentatively set for November 26.
However, the judge signed off on both sides request to stayand gave the DA’s office until Tuesday to file a petition “about appropriate next steps.”
The case was the only one of four criminal charges brought against Trump since he left office in 2021, and the jury’s verdict for the first time the former president had ever been convicted of a crime.
Last year, Trump was accused of falsifying business records to cover up his then-lawyer Michael Cohen’s hush money payments to the porn star. Stormy Daniels In the last days of the 2016 elections.
Daniels claims she had sex with Trump in 2006, a claim he denies.
It was Trump has been convicted By all accounts in May.
Some of the evidence in the trial included testimony from former White House aides Hope Hicks and Madeleine Westerhout, as well as some of Trump’s tweets insulting Cohen, which prosecutors said were part of a pressure campaign to silence him.
Trump’s attorneys argued that it was error to present any of that evidence to the jury. A subsequent July 1 decision by the US Supreme Court extending the limits of presidential immunity. They said the evidence tainted the jury and resulted in a conviction and charges should be dismissed.
Prosecutors from Bragg’s office argued lawsuit that evidence was not affected by the high court’s decision, and even if it had been, “there would still be no basis for overturning the conviction because of other substantial evidence of the defendant’s guilt.”
Trump has denied any wrongdoing in the case, which he claims is politically motivated because Bragg is a Democrat. He also accuses Bragg, who is Black, of being a “racist” while calling Mercha “corrupt” and “incompetent.”
Ministry of Justice winding down two federal criminal cases against the president-elect.
Another ongoing criminal case against the president-elect is the expansion of Fulton County District Attorney Fannie Willis. racketeering He claimed that Trump and more than a dozen conspirators were illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
That case was put on hold while Trump and some of his co-defendants asked an appeals court to dismiss Willis. alleged conflict of interest. Trump’s lawyers have argued that even if he is allowed to stay on the job, any Trump trial would have to wait until after he is removed from office in 2029 due to constitutional challenges.