The sentencing hearing for President Donald Trump’s “hush money” case has been delayed until after the election.
Democrat Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay the sentencing of Trump’s New York case until November 26.
The new date for the sentencing hearing is exactly three weeks after the general election.
Trump, who was convicted on all 34 charges in the trial in May, was initially scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.
That date was changed to September 18, which would be only seven weeks before the election.
Merchan again postponed the sentencing in a ruling on Friday after Trump and his legal team had pushed for the sentencing date to be moved back to after the November 5 election, The New York Times reported.
Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.
The politically motivated lawfare case stems from Trump being accused of improperly masking reimbursements to repay his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
The alleged payment was supposedly in exchange for her silence regarding accusations of an extramarital affair.
Cohen claims he covered up the payments by classifying them as legal expenses.
The 45th president argues that the case, which was brought by Manhattan Democrat District Attorney Alvin Bragg, is “election interference.”
Throughout the trial, Bragg and his team failed to provide any evidence linking Trump to the alleged payments.
Nevertheless, with the help of Judge Merchan, a Biden donor, Bragg convinced the jury to provide a “guilty” verdict, despite the prosecution failing to explain what crime Trump had supposedly committed.
As Slay News reported earlier, Trump and his legal team have been pushing to get Trump’s sentencing hearing delayed.
In addition, they were trying to get the case moved out of deep blue New York.
Trump’s attorneys appealed a decision to reject his request to move the sentencing hearing for his so-called “hush money” conviction to a federal court.
A judge denied Trump’s request to move his case out of the biased New York court to get a fairer sentencing hearing in a federal court, The Hill reported.
Trump’s legal team quickly filed an appeal in the hopes of delaying his upcoming sentencing hearing.
Despite his sentencing hearing now being delayed, the GOP presidential nominee could still find himself behind bars weeks after the general election if Merchan imposes jail time.
Trump is again asking U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to move his case to federal court.
“The national public has an interest in free and fair elections, unburdened by the potential for the unlawful incarceration of President Trump by local officials in a single county,” attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche said in a court filing on behalf of Trump.
“The public would therefore benefit from a stay that could allow Justice Merchan to avoid the ‘rat’s nest of comity and federalism issues’ attendant to the Presidential immunity defense and President Trump’s potential sentencing in the weeks before the election while the Second Circuit determines whether the appropriate forum is in this District,” they wrote.
This is a breaking story.
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