Judge denies Trump's bid to halt hush money case sentencing
President-elect Donald Trump remains on track to be sentenced this week in his hush money case after a judge on Monday denied his request to halt proceedings while he appeals a ruling that upheld the historic verdict.
Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan ordered sentencing to proceed as scheduled on Friday, a little more than a week before Trump’s inauguration. The judge rejected a push by Trump's lawyers to postpone it indefinitely while they ask a state appeals court to reverse his decision that let the conviction stand.
Trump, on course to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes, can still ask the appeals court to delay sentencing.
Trump's lawyers have told Merchan that if his sentencing happens, he will appear by video rather than in person. The judge had given him the option, acceding to the demands of the presidential transition process.
Last Friday, Merchan denied Trump’s bid to throw out his conviction and dismiss the case because of his impending return to the White House, but signaled he is not likely to sentence the Republican to any punishment for his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform after Merchan ruled that it “would be the end of the Presidency as we know it” if it is allowed to stand.
Trump’s lawyers, who are also challenging Merchan’s prior refusal to toss the case on presidential immunity grounds, filed appeal paperwork Monday in the appellate division of the state’s trial court. No arguments have been scheduled.
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said. “The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
Trump's lawyers did not immediately ask the appeals court to halt Trump's sentencing.
In a separate filing with Merchan, they argued that the appeal should automatically pause the case. If it didn't, they said he should step in and do it himself — an idea he rejected.
Manhattan prosecutors had urged Merchan to proceed with sentencing as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.”
Prosecutors blamed Trump for pushing his sentencing to the brink of his second term by repeatedly seeking to postpone his sentencing, originally scheduled for July.
“He should not now be heard to complain of harm from delays he caused,” they wrote in a court filing Monday afternoon, hours before Merchan ruled.
Any delay in sentencing could run out the clock on closing the case before Trump’s second term begins Jan. 20.
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which provides legal advice and guidance to federal agencies, has maintained that a sitting president is immune from criminal proceedings. If sentencing doesn't happen before Trump is sworn in, waiting until he leaves office in 2029 “may become the only viable option,” Merchan said in his ruling.
If sentencing proceeds on Friday as scheduled, Trump’s lawyers argued, he will be appealing the verdict while in office and will be “forced to deal with criminal proceedings for years to come.” They raised an improbable scenario in which, if Trump wins his appeal, he could be then subjected to another criminal trial while in office.
In upholding the verdict and rejecting Trump's bids for dismissal, Merchan wrote that the interests of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said sentencing Trump what’s known as an unconditional discharge — closing the case without jail time, a fine or probation — “appears to be the most viable solution.”
Trump's lawyers were unmoved, arguing that the “meritless case” was fostered by "numerous legal errors," including rulings by Merchan they say flew in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last July that granted presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
“The Court’s non-binding preview of its current thinking regarding a hypothetical sentencing does not mitigate these bedrock federal constitutional violations,” defense lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
Trump has selected both of them for high-ranking Justice Department positions.
Trump will have an opportunity to speak at his sentencing, as will his lawyers and prosecutors. He can only appeal the verdict after he is sentenced.
The charges involved an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is false and that he did nothing wrong.
The case centered on how Trump accounted for reimbursing his then-personal lawyer Michael Cohen, who had made the payment to Daniels. The conviction carried the possibility of punishment ranging from a fine or probation to up to four years in prison.
Cohen, a key prosecution witness who had previously called for Trump to be put in prison, said that “based upon all of the intervening circumstances” Merchan’s decision to sentence Trump without punishment “is both judicious and appropriate.”
Trump’s sentencing initially was set for last July 11, then postponed twice at the defense’s request. After Trump’s Nov. 5 election, Merchan delayed the sentencing again so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case.