A Manhattan judge agreed Tuesday to briefly delay ruling on whether to toss President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction on charges related to hush money paid to a porn star.
Trump’s lawyers had said the state court should put the case on ice while Trump prepares to serve as the country’s next commander-in-chief — and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has now at least partly agreed, seeking a date of Nov. 19 for the judge’s ruling while his office decides what next steps would be “appropriate.”
“The people agree that these are unprecedented circumstances,” Bragg’s office wrote in an email made public Tuesday morning.
New York Judge Juan M. Merchan is postponing a decision on whether to undo President-elect Donald Trump’s conviction in his hush-money case. Steven HirschManhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted the joint request and moved his deadline, which had been set for Tuesday, back a week to decide whether to scrap the verdict based on the US Supreme Court’s “presidential immunity” ruling.
Trump’s lawyers argue that continuing on with the case, and a possible sentencing scheduled for Nov. 26, would be an “unconstitutional impediment” to Trump as he prepares to reenter the White House in January, emails released Tuesday show.
Trump, 78, has aimed to reverse May’s verdict based on July’s Supreme Court ruling immunizing a president for “official acts” taken in office. His lawyers also argue that the trial was “tainted” by evidence jurors heard from Trump’s first term in the White House.
If sentencing in the hush-money case is delayed or scrapped entirely, Trump will reenter the White House largely unscathed from four criminal cases that at one time threatened to derail his campaign or possibly put him behind bars.
Federal cases in Washington, DC, and Florida — where Trump was charged with plotting to overthrow the 2020 election results and hoarding classified files at his Mar-A-Lago estate, respectively — are expected to be rolled back on Day 1 of Trump’s presidency, if not before.
The delay is due to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity, Merchan now has to consider that Trump won the 2024 presidential election. REUTERSA state case in Georgia over Trump’s alleged bid to overturn the election results there also is nowhere near a trial date after being bogged down in scandal over a local district attorney hiring a man she had a dalliance with to lead the prosecution.
The Manhattan case, brought by Bragg, a Democrat, centered on allegations that Trump helped to cover up a $130,000 payout to porn star Stormy Daniels that was meant to silence her story about having sex with the married real-estate mogul in 2006.
Jurors found that the payoff was part a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election, where Trump ended up successfully running against Dem Hillary Clinton.
The high court’s immunity ruling threw a wrench in the Manhattan court’s initial plans to sentence Trump on July 10. Judge Merchan first pushed the case back to Sept. 18 and later moved it 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.






