The sentencing in Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal hush-money case has been postponed indefinitely while attorneys on both sides argue over its future given his recent election victory.
Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing Trump’s case, did not provide a new sentencing date in his one-page scheduling order on Friday.
Merchan said in his one-page decision that Trump’s lawyers had to file their argument for dismissal by end of business on 2 December. Prosecutors have one week to respond.
The development came in the wake of filings from prosecutors and defense lawyers over their views of how Trump’s case should proceed after he won the 2024 election against Kamala Harris.
Trump’s spokesperson, Steven Cheung, issued a statement calling the decision a “decisive win”. However, he repeated the president-elect’s claim that the case – which found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsified business records – was a “hoax”.
Trump’s lawyers on Tuesday asked Merchan to throw out the case, contending that dismissal was necessary “in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power”.
Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney and choice for deputy US attorney general, and Emil Bove, the president-elect’s pick for principal associate deputy attorney general, complained that the Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s team “appears to not yet be ready to dismiss this politically motivated and fatally flawed case, which is what is mandated by the law and will happen as justice takes its course”.
They argued that the US justice department was on the verge of dismissing Trump’s federal cases and pointed to a departmental memo that bars prosecution of sitting presidents.
“As in those cases, dismissal is necessary here,” their filing said. “Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect.”
They claimed that if this case proceeds, it would “be uniquely destabilizing” and could “hamstring the operation of the whole governmental apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs”. They asked for Merchan to give them until 20 December to file their push for dismissal.
Prosecutors previously told Merchan that they planned on fighting Trump’s expected plans for dismissal in the aftermath of his recent presidential win. Prosecutors also said that other case proceedings should be put on pause until Trump’s dismissal argument is decided.
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Prosecutors disagreed that Trump’s case should be dismissed simply because appeals wouldn’t be decided before his inauguration. While they respected the presidency and understood the logistical issues, “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 unofficial conduct from which the defendant is also not immune.”
The prosecution said that courts must respect the varying constitutional interests – the executive branch’s need for independence, and the judicial branch’s need for integrity.
Prosecutors told Merchan that there were routes he could take other than outright dismissal, including “deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of defendant’s upcoming presidential term”.
Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records in an effort to sway the 2016 election on 30 May. The prosecution said that Trump falsely listed reimbursements to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, who gave the adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence about a purported affair with Trump, as “legal expenses”.
The jury reached their guilty verdict in less than 24 hours. These proceedings were the first time a US president – former or sitting – stood a criminal trial, as well as a conviction.
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