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On the left, we see Judge Juan Merchan in a photo taken in his chambers in New York on Thursday, March 14, 2024. Judge Merchan is currently overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money case in New York. The photo credit goes to AP Photo/Seth Wenig. On the right, we have a file photo showing former President Donald Trump being escorted to a courtroom on April 4, 2023, in New York. The credit for this photo goes to AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File.
Donald Trump, the former U.S. president now facing potential jail time after being convicted of 34 financial crimes in New York, will learn his fate after the 2024 election in November.
In a letter to prosecutors and defense attorneys on Friday, New York Justice Juan Merchan announced that Trump will be sentenced on Nov. 26. He also delayed his ruling on Trump’s motion to set aside the guilty verdict to Nov. 12, and noted that the decision will be “handed down off-calendar.”
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records in the Empire State. The charges stemmed from a $130,000 hush-money payment made by Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, 57, to adult content creator Stormy Daniels, 45, in October 2016. Merchan had originally set sentencing for July but agreed that month to push it to Sept. 18, in light of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity.
In his letter, Merchan acknowledged Trump’s request to “avoid the potential ‘politically prejudicial’ impact that a public sentencing could have” on Trump, the Republican nominee for president.
“He attempts to bolster his application by repeating a litany of perceived and unsubstantiated grievances from previous filings that do not merit this Court’s attention and will not be addressed in this Decision,” Merchan added.
Merchan also addressed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s response to Trump’s request, noting that the prosecutors deferred to Merchan on the matter of delaying the sentence.
“[T]his Court finds that, despite the People’s stated neutrality, they present concerns in their letter of August 16, 2024, in a manner which seemingly supports Defendant’s application for an adjournment,” Merchan wrote. “The People certainly do not oppose, and a careful reading of their response can fairly be construed as a joinder of the motion.”
The procedural posture of the hush-money case, the judge said, “is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history,” notwithstanding the already “critical” decision confronted by all trial judges — how to sentence a convicted defendant.
“Unfortunately, we are now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities rendering the requirements of a sentencing hearing, should one be necessary, difficult to execute,” Merchan wrote.
The judge appeared to bristle at the notion that any sentencing of Trump before the election could be seen as having an impact on the presidential race.
“[T]he imposition of sentence will be adjourned to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate,” Merchan wrote. “The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution.”
The judge noted that sentencing delays are “routinely granted, often several times, in any number of other criminal matters … for reasons ranging from personal circumstances to the scheduling needs of the parties involved.”
“Given the unique facts and circumstances of this case, there is no reason why this Defendant should be treated any differently than any other,” Merchan added.
Delaying both the sentencing and Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict until after the election, Merchan wrote, “best advances the interests of justice.”
As Lawfare reported on Thursday, an email from Merchan’s clerk filed in Trump’s appeal of a federal court’s decision not to remove the hush-money case to federal court noted that the judge had pledged to decide by Thursday whether to postpone the hearing until after the election.
According to an 8/19/24 email just filed now in the 2d Cir., Justice Merchan is aiming to decide by TODAY whether to postpone Trump’s NY sentencing till after the election. The People have taken no position on Trump’s motion.
— Roger Parloff (@rparloff) September 5, 2024
The decision can be seen as a significant victory for Trump, whose repeated attempts to remove Merchan from the case have repeatedly failed. Lawyers for Trump argued that Merchan’s daughter’s role as a Democratic Party consultant is proof of bias against the ex-president, a Republican.
Prosecutors and the ex-president have also battled over the limitations of the judge’s gag order in the case, criticized by Trump’s lawyers as an unconstitutional restriction on “core political speech.”
