Manhattan DA agrees to postpone Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case

The Manhattan district attorney said Tuesday it would agree to postpone Donald Trump’s sentencing to give them time to litigate the president-elect’s expected motion to dismiss the hush money case.

In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan, the district attorney’s office also acknowledged that Trump is not likely to be sentenced “until after the end of after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term.” But the DA says Trump’s felony conviction should stand.

The developments cap an historic and unprecedented turnaround for Trump’s legal and political fate. One year ago, Trump was facing four separate indictments. Now as he prepares to retake the White House, the strategy of Trump’s lawyers to try to push all of his cases beyond the 2024 election has proven wildly successful, with the two federal cases about to be wound down, the Georgia state case long dormant and the New York case poised to end without a sentence.

Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records over payments made to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to reimburse a US$130,000 hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from speaking out about an alleged affair before the 2016 election (Trump has denied the affair).

In the letter to the judge, the Manhattan district attorney argued that the judge should not dismiss Trump’s conviction.

“No current law establishes that a president’s temporary immunity from prosecution requires dismissal of a post-trial criminal proceeding that was initiated at a time when the defendant was not immune from criminal prosecution and that is based on official conduct for which the defendant is also not immune,” the district attorney’s office wrote.

In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the file “a total and definitive victory for President Trump.”