By Hank Russell
Former president Donald Trump has learned that the judge who presided over his hush money trial has granted his request to push his sentencing date back to after Election Day.
Acting New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan M. Merchan originally ordered Trump to begin his sentence on September 18 but moved the date to November 26. Trump was convicted in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he had his attorney pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange that she not say anything about her relationship with Trump. Arrangements were later made as to how his attorney would be paid back.
After the conviction, Merchan ordered Trump to begin his sentence on July 11, but Trump successfully had it moved back to a later date to September 18. Again, Trump called for the sentencing date to be rescheduled.
On August 14, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove of Blanche Law PLLC — who represented Trump in the hush money case — sent a letter to Merchan requesting that the judge postpone sentencing to allow Trump “adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options in response to any adverse ruling.”
Trump’s attorneys concluded, “[S]etting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush. Accordingly, we respectfully request that any sentencing, if one is needed, be adjourned until after the Presidential election.”
Merchan responded to the letter and granted the adjournment of the sentencing. “Unfortunately, we are now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities rendering the requirements of a sentencing hearing, should one be necessary, difficult to execute,” he said in his letter, adding the sentencing will be delayed “to avoid any appearance-however unwarranted-that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
In an interview with Fox Digital, Trump said, “The case was delayed because everyone realizes there was no case and I did nothing wrong. It is a case that should never have been brought. … The case should be dead.”
This article originally appeared in Long Island Life & Politics. For more from LILP, visit them online at lilifepolitics.com.
