By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK – A New York judge is expected to rule on Friday on Donald Trump’s request to push back sentencing in his hush money criminal case until after the Nov. 5 election.
The former U.S. president is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 18, less than two months before the election in which Trump is the Republican nominee for president.
Trump’s lawyers in August urged Justice Juan Merchan to push back the date, citing “naked election-interference objectives.” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the charges, is a Democrat.
Bragg’s office took no position on Trump’s request. The prosecutors said in a Thursday night court filing that the judge told the parties he would decide on Friday.
In the first criminal trial of a former or current U.S. president, Trump was convicted on May 30 of falsifying business records to cover up his then lawyer’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the encounter and has vowed to appeal the verdict.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, though sentences such as fines or probation are more common.
In pushing for Merchan to delay sentencing, Trump’s lawyers also argued there would not be enough time before the sentencing to potentially appeal the judge’s forthcoming ruling on Trump’s request to overturn the conviction due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 1 decision on presidential immunity.
Merchan is scheduled to rule on that motion on Sept. 16.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling, which related to a separate criminal case Trump faces, found that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official acts, and that evidence of presidents’ official actions cannot be used in criminal cases involving unofficial actions.
Bragg’s office argued its case involved Trump’s personal conduct, so the verdict should stand.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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