New York judge postpones Trump sentencing

Trump’s legal team hopes that a recent Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity could overturn his felony conviction

(Image credit: Hannah Beier / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US

published 3 July 2024

What happened

The New York judge who presided over Donald Trump's hush money trial and criminal conviction has postponed his July 11 sentencing. Judge Juan Merchan is now due to sentence the former president in mid-September, though he could also decide a Supreme Court ruling granting Trump broad presidential immunity fatally compromised the New York state felony fraud convictions.

Merchan may "ultimately find no basis to overturn the jury's verdict," The New York Times said, but Tuesday's decision to postpone the sentencing was a "surprising turn of events." The two-month delay will "allow time for Trump to file a formal motion asking for the conviction to be completely tossed out, for prosecutors to respond and for Merchan to rule," USA Today said.

The Supreme Court's ruling may not directly affect Trump's Manhattan conviction "since the conduct at issue was principally about paying hush money to an adult-film actress" and then "reimbursing Trump's former lawyer," The Washington Post said. However, Trump's legal team may use the immunity decision to "attack the trial evidence, since the Supreme Court ruled that evidence related to official acts of a president may not be presented to a jury."

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.