Judge in Trump’s hush money trial delays sentencing following Supreme Court immunity ruling
Donald Trump at his trial at Manhattan Criminal Court in May.Doug Mills / The New York Times via AP pool file
The hearing, previously scheduled for July 11, will be delayed until at least September 18.
By Laura Jarrett, Adam Reiss and Alana Satlin
The judge in Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Tuesday approved a delay of the former president’s sentencing after his lawyers asked for more time to review the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.
Trump’s lawyers have indicated that they want Judge Juan Merchan to toss out Trump’s felony conviction on 34 counts of falsified business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The hearing, previously scheduled for July 11, will be delayed until at least September 18.
Trump’s team on Monday sent a letter to Merchan asking to brief him on the Supreme Court’s Monday ruling, which said that the former president has some immunity from prosecution related to his “official” acts as president. The ruling was a blow to prosecutors in Trump’s federal election interference case, but it’s not exactly clear how it will affect the other criminal cases against him.
In a letter Tuesday, prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said they were not opposed to delaying the sentencing hearing. Delaying guarantees Trump will not be sentenced until after he is formally nominated for president at the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Laura Jarrett
Laura Jarrett is a senior legal correspondent for NBC News.
Adam Reiss
Adam Reiss is a reporter and producer for NBC and MSNBC.
Alana Satlin
Alana is a politics editor at NBCNews.com based in New York.