A judge rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s last-minute Monday attempt to delay his hush-money sentencing as he appeals his conviction on 34 felony charges ahead of his inauguration.
New York supreme court judge Juan Merchan denied an attempt from Trump’s attorneys to push back his sentencing Friday, which is scheduled to take place only ten days before Trump assumes the nation’s highest office.
Trump’s attorneys argued that the proceedings should be put on hold while they appeal Trump’s conviction on charges stemming from reimbursements he sent attorney Michael Cohen for paying off porn actress Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election. Daniels has accused Trump of having an extramarital affair with her in 2006, a claim Trump denies.
Merchan set Trump’s sentencing date last week and dismissed his attempt to have the conviction tossed based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling last year. The judge plans to sentence Trump to an unconditional discharge, without any legal penalties, to put the matter to rest. Trump will officially be a convicted felon on inauguration day, the first president to do so.
“Finding no legal impediment to sentencing and recognizing that Presidential immunity will likely attach once Defendant takes his Oath of Office, it is incumbent upon this Court to set this matter down for the imposition of sentence prior to January 20, 2025,” Merchan wrote last week.
The Supreme Court ruled in July that Trump has presidential immunity for “official acts” committed during his time in office, a decision prosecutors argued does not apply to the hush-money payment to Daniels. Trump’s attorneys believe the juror misconduct and evidence connected to Trump’s first term are enough to warrant throwing out the verdict.
Trump routinely accused Merchan and Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg (D) of waging a political prosecution against him and rigging the trial outcome in deep-blue New York City. The president-elect and his backers highlighted Merchan’s political donation to President Joe Biden and Merchan’s daughter’s political consulting work for Democratic lawmakers.
“Ultimately, the Biden/Harris DOJ forced Bragg to concoct anything to embarrass TRUMP. But it was even more so what the CORRUPT and TOTALLY CONFLICTED POLITICAL HACK Judge did, and is doing, on this sham trial,” Trump said Sunday on Truth Social.
“The Judge fabricated the facts, and the law, no different than the other New York Judicial and Prosecutorial Witch Hunts.”
The New York case was the only one of Trump’s four criminal cases to make it to trial before he won the presidential election this past November, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump’s other three cases, brought by special counsel Jack Smith and embattled Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis (D), largely dissipated following his electoral triumph and several legal victories during the proceedings.