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A Manhattan judge Friday postponed Donald Trump’s sentencing on his conviction in his “hush money” case — and said he’ll weigh scrapping the case entirely in light of voters electing Trump as president.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he’ll consider claims from Trump’s lawyers that pressing on with such a case involving a president-elect would interfere with the “orderly transition of executive power” and be “uniquely destabilizing” to the country.

The decision to pause Trump’s sentencing makes it overwhelmingly likely that the president-elect will re-enter the White House largely unscathed by any of the four criminal cases that had threatened to derail his campaign or even put him behind bars.


  Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has postponed Donald Trump’s sentencing on his conviction in his hush money case and will consider tossing the case entirely in light of voters electing Trump as president. AP Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has postponed Donald Trump’s sentencing on his conviction in his hush money case and will consider tossing the case entirely in light of voters electing Trump as president. AP

Merchan ordered Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Trump’s lawyers to file their arguments in December on whether the case should be tossed before the court issues its decision.

Trump had initially been set to be sentenced July 10, but the US Supreme Court threw a wrench into those plans by ruling that presidents cannot be prosecuted for “official acts” taken in office.

Bragg’s office has argued that the ruling had “no bearing” on the hush-money case because covering up a payment to a porn star while in the Oval Office would not fall into the category of a presidential “official act.”

At the time, Merchan pushed the sentencing back to Sept. 18 to give both sides time to hash the issue out.

Merchan later moved the sentencing to November, citing what he called “unwarranted” claims that his decision on Trump’s punishment could be based on politics, rather than the law, so close to the election.

The new sentencing delay will allow both sides to continue to argue whether the case should be tossed altogether, now that Trump is returning to the White House, Merchan said.


  Adult film star Stormy Daniels testified against Trump, claiming to have had sex with him in 2006. AP Adult film star Stormy Daniels testified against Trump, claiming to have had sex with him in 2006. AP

  The guilty verdict against Trump in May branded him a convicted felon in the final months of his presidential campaign. POOL/AFP via Getty Images The guilty verdict against Trump in May branded him a convicted felon in the final months of his presidential campaign. POOL/AFP via Getty Images

The legal back-and-forth follows a two-year court saga that reached a crescendo with the theatrical spectacle of Trump, 78, spending six weeks inside a dingy Manhattan courtroom listening to salacious testimony from witnesses such as porn star Stormy Daniels, who testified to having sex with him in 2006.

Jurors saw evidence that Trump worked with his former fixer Michael Cohen and the National Enquirer magazine to buy up the rights to, and bury, the damaging information about him before the 2016 presidential race. Trump was accused of engaging in covering up the payments in 2017, when he was president.

The tawdry tales included Daniels’ allegations of  a brief tryst  and Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal’s story about a months-long affair with Trump — both while he was already married to wife Melania.

“What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump told Cohen in a secretly made recording, appearing to reference a $150,000 payoff to McDougal.

The guilty verdict against Trump in May branded him a convicted felon in the final months of his presidential campaign — but the president-elect used it as a rallying cry for his supporters, insisting that the case was a “witch hunt” orchestrated against him by Democrats.


  The decision to pause Trump’s sentencing makes it overwhelmingly likely that the president-elect will re-enter the White House largely unscathed by the four criminal cases against him. Getty Images The decision to pause Trump’s sentencing makes it overwhelmingly likely that the president-elect will re-enter the White House largely unscathed by the four criminal cases against him. Getty Images

His campaign said it generated a “record-shattering” $34.8 million in small-dollar donations in the hours after jurors found Trump guilty.

Meanwhile, Trump’s three other criminal cases are either in limbo or winding down.

Federal cases in Washington, DC, and Florida — where Trump was charged with plotting to overthrow the 2020 election results and with hoarding classified files at his Mar-a-Lago estate, respectively — are expected to be rolled back on Day 1 of his presidency, if not before.

A state case in Georgia over Trump’s alleged bid to overturn the election results, meanwhile, is nowhere near a trial date after being derailed by a controversy over a local prosecutor hiring a man she was romantically involved with to lead the case.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called Friday’s development a “decisive win” for the president-elect, and claimed that the hush-money case — in which a Manhattan jury convicted Trump of felony falsifying business records — was a “hoax.”

In a statement, Cheung further claimed that the prosecutions Trump has faced are “sham lawfare attacks,” that they are now “destroyed” and added, “We are focused on Making America Great Again.”

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