Donald Trump, standing with defence lawyer Todd Blanche, speaks at the conclusion of proceedings for the day at his trial at Manhattan criminal court in New York on May 14.Craig Ruttle/The Associated Press
A judge on Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to undo president-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush money case as prosecutors consider how to proceed in light of last week’s election and his lawyers argue for dismissal so he can run the country.
The postponement comes at a dramatic and dynamic point in the case, which focused on how Mr. Trump accounted for payments to a porn actor before the 2016 election and produced a first-ever conviction of a former commander-in-chief.
Sentencing had been set for Nov. 26. But prosecutors now say they’re reassessing, and they appear open to the possibility that the proceedings can’t go as planned.
“These are unprecedented circumstances,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in an e-mail to the court. He said prosecutors need to consider how to balance the “competing interests” of the jury’s verdict and the presidency.
Trump lawyer Emil Bove, meanwhile, argued the case must be thrown out altogether “to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump’s ability to govern.”
The messages were part of an e-mail chain released Tuesday, when New York Judge Juan M. Merchan had been set to rule on Mr. Trump lawyers’ earlier request to toss his conviction for a different reason – because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling this summer on presidential immunity.
Instead, Justice Merchan told Mr. Trump’s lawyers he’d halt proceedings and delay the ruling until at least Tuesday so that prosecutors can suggest a way forward. Both sides agreed to the one-week postponement.
Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung heralded the delay. He said in a statement that the president-elect’s win makes it “abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, including this case, which should have never been filed.”
Prosecutors declined to comment.
A jury convicted Mr. Trump in May of falsifying business records related to a US$130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in 2016. The payout was to buy her silence about claims that she had sex with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump says they didn’t have sex, denies any wrongdoing and maintains the prosecution was a political tactic meant to harm his latest campaign. Mr. Trump is a Republican. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office brought the case, is a Democrat, as is Justice Merchan.
Just over a month after the verdict, the Supreme Court ruled that ex-presidents can’t be prosecuted for actions they took in the course of running the country, and prosecutors can’t cite those actions even to bolster a case centred on purely personal conduct.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers cited that ruling to argue that the hush money jury got some evidence it shouldn’t have, such as Mr. Trump’s presidential financial disclosure form and testimony from some White House aides.
Prosecutors disagreed and said the evidence in question was only “a sliver” of their case.
Mr. Trump’s criminal conviction was a first for any ex-president. It left the 78-year-old facing the possibility of a fine, probation or up to four years in prison.
The case centred on how Mr. Trump accounted for reimbursing a personal attorney for the Daniels payment.
The then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, fronted the money. He later recouped it through a series of payments that Trump’s company logged as legal expenses. Mr. Trump, by then in the White House, signed most of the checks himself.
Prosecutors said the designation was meant to cloak the true purpose of the payments and help cover up a broader effort to keep voters from hearing unflattering claims about Mr. Trump during his first campaign.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Cohen was legitimately paid for legal services, and that Ms. Daniels’ story was suppressed to avoid embarrassing Mr. Trump’s family, not to influence the electorate.
Mr. Trump was a private citizen, campaigning for president, when Mr. Cohen paid Daniels in October, 2016. He was president when Mr. Cohen was reimbursed, and Mr. Cohen testified that they discussed the repayment arrangement in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump has been fighting for months to overturn the verdict. While urging Merchan to nix the conviction, the president-elect also has been trying to move the case to federal court. Before the election, a federal judge repeatedly said no to the move, but Mr. Trump has appealed.
Mr. Trump faces three other unrelated indictments in various jurisdictions.
But Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has been evaluating how to wind down both the 2020 election interference case and the separate classified documents case against Mr. Trump before he takes office, a person familiar with the matter told the Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Long-standing Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, a Georgia election interference case against Mr. Trump is largely on hold while he and other defendants appeal a judge’s ruling allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue prosecuting it.