New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan is postponing President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing and ordered lawyers to submit motions in December on whether the case should be dismissed.
Judge Merchan on Friday said he would adjourn his Tuesday sentencing date as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and defense lawyers fight over the fate of the case.
The decision all but guarantees Mr. Trump won’t face punishment before his Jan. 20 inauguration.
Mr. Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but his election victory this month threw the case into turmoil.
Defense attorneys say the case must be thrown out for two reasons: Precedent dictates a sitting president can’t be criminally prosecuted, and they believe that protection extends to the president-elect. They also said a U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting immunity for official acts tainted Mr. Trump’s trial and warrants dismissal.
Mr. Bragg and his team refused to drop the case but said a delay is appropriate, given Mr. Trump’s status as president-in-waiting.
Judge Merchan ordered defense attorneys to submit their motion to dismiss by Dec. 2 and said prosecutors should respond by Dec. 9.
Some Democrats weren’t happy about the delay.
“If anyone ever wanted to see what ’justice delayed is justice denied’ looks like in legal form, this is it,” Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, California Democrat, wrote on X with a copy of Mr. Merchan’s order.
A Manhattan jury returned a guilty verdict near Memorial Day.
Mr. Trump staved off sentencing multiple times, citing the Supreme Court immunity ruling and his being a presidential nominee.
His election victory also forced special counsel Jack Smith to wind down a pair of federal prosecutions of Mr. Trump. The GOP standard-bearer said on the campaign trail that as president he would fire Mr. Smith fast.
But Mr. Trump has already been convicted in New York, making it an unusual situation.
The Trump transition team said Friday the matter should be closed. Communications director Steven Cheung called the Merchan order a “decisive win.”
“The hoax Manhattan case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned,” he said in a statement. “President Trump won a landslide victory as the American people have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the witch hunt cases. All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed, and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”
At trial, prosecutors said Mr. Trump criminally concealed a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels around the 2016 campaign with an intent to violate election laws.
They said Mr. Trump paid Ms. Daniels through Michael Cohen and concealed reimbursements to the lawyer in 2017 by misidentifying checks.
At trial, Mr. Trump’s lawyers said he was busy running the country and thought he was paying Mr. Cohen for legal services, so his team logged the checks in that manner. They also said the trial was politically motivated and designed to thwart Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign.
This month, Mr. Trump said he planned to nominate his main trial lawyer, Todd Blanche, as deputy attorney general and a second trial attorney, Emil Bove, as principal associate deputy attorney general.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.