Judge adjourns Trump hush money case verdict until September, weeks before US election, amid Supreme Court ruling- Firstpost

Donald Trump’s sentencing for crimes relating to bribery paid to a porn star was postponed on Tuesday until September 18, less than seven weeks before the US election.

Judge Juan Merchan pushed back his sentencing date to consider an argument by the former U.S. president that he should be protected from prosecution under a landmark Supreme Court ruling Monday that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for official actions.

The new timeline means Merchan could make a decision on punishment for the Republican presidential candidate, including imprisonment, at the height of the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

The verdict was scheduled for July 11, just days before the July 15 Republican National Convention opened in Milwaukee.

Trump will face an uphill battle to overturn his silence conviction because much of the conduct at issue in the case occurred before he was in office.

Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked Merchan to allow them to argue that his conviction should be overturned because of the justices’ 6-3 ruling on July 1, which also ruled that evidence related to the president’s official actions cannot be used to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions.

Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said earlier Tuesday that Trump’s arguments were “without merit” but agreed to delay sentencing to give Trump a chance to present his case.

On May 30, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to conceal the fact that his former lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about an alleged sexual encounter in 2006 until the 2016 election, in which Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Prosecutors said the payment was part of an illegal scheme to influence the election outcome.

Trump denies having sex with Daniels and has said he will appeal the verdict once it is announced.

“A purely personal matter”

In their letter to Merchan, defense attorneys argued that prosecutors had presented evidence relating to Trump’s official activities as president, including his social media posts and conversations he had while in the White House.

“This evidence of official documents should never have been presented to a jury,” attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.

Trump made a similar argument last year in an unsuccessful bid to move his hush money case to federal court. In July 2023, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein wrote that the payment to Daniels “was a purely personal matter.”

“The hush money paid to an adult film star has no connection with the president’s official activities,” Hellerstein wrote.

Trump’s lawyers appealed Hellerstein’s decision but later dropped their efforts.

In his written ruling, Merchan said he would rule on Trump’s motion to overturn the jury’s verdict by Sept. 6, with a verdict expected in less than two weeks if the judge upholds the conviction. Trump’s lawyers have until July 10 to present their arguments, and prosecutors have a July 24 deadline to respond.