Donald Trump’s sentence in his New York hush money trial was postponed until after November’s presidential election on Friday. This is a victory for the Republican in his tight race against Democrat Kamala Harris.
On September 18, the former president was supposed to be jailed for forging financial documents as part of a plot to stifle a porn star’s damaging political report.
At Trump’s attorneys’ request, Judge Juan Merchan, however, continued the hearing until November 26, well after the election on November 5.
He stated in his conclusion that “this Court does not make decisions lightly, but this is the decision that, in this Court’s view, best advances the interests of justice.”
In order to conceal hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and keep her quiet about an alleged sexual encounter on the eve of the 2016 election, Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business documents in May.
The original date of his sentencing was July 11.
This was postponed, nevertheless, following the US Supreme Court’s decision to grant a former president extensive protection from prosecution.
Trump’s attorneys have requested that his conviction from New York be overturned in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to grant him immunity. On November 12, Merchan promised to make a decision about the dismissing motion.
The decision to postpone comes as the already remarkable presidential contest moves into a more heated phase. Next up is the first-ever televised debate between Trump and Harris.
Just hours before the decision, Trump was in New York making meandering speeches about his numerous legal concerns while disputing the charges of sexual harassment and assault made by several women. This was in contrast to his usual focus on matters that were important to voters, such as immigration or the economy.
From the Trump Tower lobby, Trump said, “This is not the kind of publicity you like,” even as he spent an hour, on his own initiative, reminding voters of his protracted legal history and the allegations of rape and sexual assault made by a number of women, including author E. Jean Carroll.
The legal drama unfolded on the day the first mail-in ballots of the election were due to be distributed.
The battleground state of North Carolina was scheduled to mail out around 130,000 absentee voting slips, marking the symbolic start of a nationwide process that, during the bitter 2020 election, saw 155 million Americans cast ballots.
However, a state appeals court halted the process after a last-minute lawsuit by independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is seeking to have his name removed from ballots. The fringe candidate from America’s most famous political family has dropped out and endorsed Trump.
North Carolina is among a handful of swing states that Harris and Trump have been crisscrossing as they embark on the most intense phase of an election expected to be decided by razor-thin margins.
Other states will soon follow in mailing out initial batches of ballots, and early in-person voting begins across 47 states as soon as September 20.
Trump is scheduled to deliver remarks later on Friday in North Carolina.