In a letter released to the public on Thursday, former President Donald Trump’s legal team asked Judge Juan Merchan for a delay in Trump’s sentencing in the Manhattan trial. That sentencing is currently scheduled for September 18th. The Trump legal team claims, among other things, that a sentencing that close amounts to election interference.
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Donald Trump is asking the judge in his New York hush money criminal case to delay his sentencing until after the November presidential election.
In a letter made public Thursday, a lawyer for the former president and current Republican nominee suggested that sentencing Trump as scheduled on Sept. 18 — about seven weeks before Election Day — would amount to election interference.
Trump lawyer Todd Blanche wrote that a delay would also allow Trump time to weigh next steps after the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, is expected to rule Sept. 16 on the defense’s request to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
“There is no basis for continuing to rush,” Blanche wrote.
As currently scheduled, the sentencing would occur 48 days before the November 5th election.
Trump was found guilty in May on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a 2016 payment to a former pornographic actress. The former president has maintained that the charges are false and that the charges are politically motivated.
Previously on RedState: Hell No, He Won’t Go: Judge Merchan Again Declines to Recuse in Trump Manhattan Case
New York Appeals Court Upholds Gag Order in Trump Business Records Case
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District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges, is a Democrat, as is Judge Juan Merchan, whose daughter works as a Democrat consultant.
Blanche sent the letter to Merchan on Wednesday after the judge rejected the defense’s latest request that he step aside from the case.
In the letter, Blanche reiterated the defense argument that the judge has a conflict of interest because his daughter works as a Democratic political consultant, including for Kamala Harris when she sought the 2020 presidential nomination. Harris is now running against Trump.
By adjourning the sentencing until after that election, “the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” Blanche wrote.
Further complicating the issue is the recent Trump v. United States Supreme Court ruling, which prompted another filing by the Trump legal team seeking to have the case thrown out.
The Supreme Court’s immunity decision reins in prosecutions of ex-presidents for official acts and restricts prosecutors in pointing to official acts as evidence that a president’s unofficial actions were illegal. Trump’s lawyers argue that in light of the ruling, jurors in the hush money case should not have heard such evidence as former White House staffers describing how the then-president reacted to news coverage of the Daniels deal.
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Judge Merchan is expected to rule on the immunity motion on September 16th, two days before the scheduled sentencing.
The full letter from the Trump legal team may be viewed here.
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