A judge on Tuesday delayed a decision on whether to reverse President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his secret funds case, with his lawyers saying his election last week warranted the case being dismissed outright so he could run the country.
New York Judge Juan M. Merchan was scheduled to rule Tuesday on their earlier request to overturn his conviction for a different reason — due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity. Instead, he told Trump’s lawyers that he would postpone sentencing until November 19 so prosecutors could give their view on what to do in light of Trump’s imminent return to the White House.
According to emails submitted to the court on Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors in recent days agreed to a one-week postponement.
Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote that because of the “unprecedented circumstances,” prosecutors must consider how to balance the “competing interests” of jury verdict and the presidency.
Meanwhile, Trump’s lawyer, Emil Boff, said dropping the case “is necessary to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors had no immediate comment Tuesday.
A jury convicted Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a $130,000 payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payment was to buy her silence about allegations that she had sex with Trump.
Get breaking national news
For news affecting Canada and around the world, sign up to get breaking news alerts delivered to you right as they happen.
He says they did not, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the prosecution was a political tactic aimed at damaging his latest campaign.
Just over a month after the ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that former presidents cannot be tried for actions they committed while running the country, and prosecutors cannot cite those actions even to support a case centered around purely personal issues. behavior.
Trump’s lawyers cited that ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House aides.
Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only a “small piece” of their case.
Trump’s criminal conviction was the first of its kind for any former president. It left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.
The case centered on how Trump would compensate his personal lawyer for paying Daniels.
Attorney Michael Cohen topped the funds. He later recovered it through a series of payments that Trump’s company recorded as legal expenses. Trump, who was in the White House at the time, signed most of the checks himself.
Prosecutors said the designation was intended to hide the true purpose of the payments and help cover up a broader effort to prevent voters from hearing unpleasant allegations about the Republican during his first campaign.
Trump said Cohen was paid legal fees for legal services, and that Daniels’ story was withheld to avoid embarrassing the Trump family, not to influence voters.
Trump was a private citizen — campaigning for president, but neither elected nor sworn in — when Cohen paid Daniels in October 2016. He was president when Cohen was compensated, and Cohen testified that they discussed the payment arrangements in the Oval Office.
Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the ruling and could now seek to take advantage of his status as president-elect. Although he will be tried as a private citizen, his anticipated return to the White House could prompt the court to intervene and avoid the unprecedented spectacle of sentencing a former and future president.
While Trump has been urging Merchan to overturn the conviction, he is also trying to move the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge repeatedly said no to the move, but Trump appealed.
Trump faces three other unrelated indictments in different jurisdictions.
But Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was evaluating how to close the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case against Trump before he took office, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Long-standing Justice Department policy is that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, Georgia’s election interference case against Trump is largely on hold while Trump and other defendants appeal a judge’s ruling allowing the prosecutor in that case, Fanny Willis, to continue her prosecution.
— Associated Press correspondent Alana Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
