Trump sentencing date in hush money case postponed to Sept. 18

A New York judge on Tuesday delayed Donald Trump‘s sentencing date in his criminal hush money case by more than two months, following a request by the former president’s attorneys to challenge his conviction.

Trump’s criminal sentencing, if it still happens, will now take place on Sept. 18, about seven weeks before the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was previously set to be sentenced on July 11. But Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan in Tuesday’s order canceled that date, while granting a request by Trump’s attorneys to file a motion seeking to overturn his guilty verdict.

That request came in light of Monday’s bombshell Supreme Court ruling that former presidents are entitled to “presumptive immunity” for all official acts they performed in office.

Trump’s lawyers now have until July 10 to file a motion to set aside the hush money verdict. Prosecutors, who did not oppose Trump’s bid to delay the sentencing date, must file their response by July 24.

Merchan said he will reach a decision on the matter by Sept. 6. Trump’s sentencing will occur Sept. 18 at 10 a.m. ET, “if such is still necessary,” Merchan ruled.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision instantly threatened to alter or undermine some of the numerous active criminal cases against Trump.

The hush money case, which will likely be the only one against Trump to head to trial before the Nov. 5 presidential election, ended on May 30 with Trump’s conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

The case centered on a $130,000 payment made shortly before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump while he was married years earlier.

In a letter to Merchan on Monday, Trump’s attorneys asked for a July 10 deadline to submit a legal memo in support of their bid to set aside the guilty verdict.

And “because of the complexity of the issues presented,” they added, “President Trump does not object to an adjournment of the July 11, 2024 sentencing date in order to allow adequate time for full briefing, oral argument, and a decision.”

The attorneys argued in the letter that, under the Supreme Court’s latest ruling, certain evidence prosecutors introduced at trial “should never have been put before the jury.”

“The verdicts in this case violate the presidential immunity doctrine and create grave risks of ‘an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself,’” they wrote, quoting the majority opinion from Chief Justice John Roberts.

“After further briefing on these issues beginning on July 10, 2024, it will be manifest that the trial result cannot stand,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, in their…