Decision On Whether To Overturn Trump’s New York Hush Money Conviction Delayed

New York Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday, 12th of November, 2024 agreed to give Manhattan prosecutors and Donald Trump’s lawyers a week to hash out how to proceed in Trump’s hush money case now that Trump has been reelected, raising new questions of whether Trump will ever be sentenced after being convicted in May.

It’s the latest instance where Trump’s resounding victory last week has wiped away the likelihood that he will face legal repercussions after being indicted four times last year. Any sentencing for Trump’s criminal conviction in May in New York is in jeopardy. Special counsel Jack Smith is in talks with Justice Department leadership about how to end the federal cases against Trump. The Georgia election subversion case continues to be delayed due to legal fights over the status of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. And a Trump-appointed federal judge threw out the charges against Trump for mishandling classified documents.

According to CNN, Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office agreed to delay activity in the hush money case until Tuesday, November 19, in order to give the president-elect’s lawyers and the district attorney’s office time to make new arguments on how Trump’s election victory impacts the case.

Merchan was expected to rule Tuesday on whether to overturn the business fraud conviction based on this summer’s Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.

Instead, both sides agreed to a motion to delay existing deadlines.

“The people agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence to the People on Friday require careful consideration to ensure that any further steps in this proceeding appropriately balance the competing interests of (1) a jury verdict of guilt following a trial that has the presumption of regularity; and (2) the Office of the President,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote to the judge.