NYC prosecutors don’t oppose pushing back sentencing in Trump hush money case

NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors on Monday said they wouldn’t oppose Donald Trump’s request to push back sentencing in his hush money case until after the election to allow time to resolve thorny legal questions surrounding the impact of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision — but that his other excuses for a delay are “bizarre.”

Responding to Trump’s Hail Mary pass to delay the proceeding set for Sept. 18, prosecutors said they were prepared to move ahead on schedule but would leave the timing up to the judge. They conceded that if Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan denied an outstanding request to toss the conviction based on the Supreme Court ruling two days before the sentencing — which Trump has vowed to fight — it would give an appeals court only one day to iron it out.

“The People defer to the court on the appropriate post-trial schedule,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo wrote in a filing made public Monday.

Merchan has to decide whether the July 1 ruling by the high court’s conservative supermajority, which found presidents’ “official acts” are shielded from criminal liability, meant evidence dating to Trump’s time in office was improperly admitted by the prosecution at trial and, if so, whether it was meaningful enough to set aside the jury’s verdicts.

Colangelo said it wasn’t clear whether Trump was entitled to immediately appeal a denial by Merchan, but that “there are strong reasons” why he should not be. Still, he said prosecutors were “mindful” of the significant security precautions undertaken for Trump’s court appearances and how they could be disturbed by an eleventh-hour appeal.

Jurors found Trump, 78, guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30 in the case centering on his 2017 reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels in a scheme hatched before his presidency to hide unflattering information about his sexual history from voters.

Trump’s lawyers have argued the Supreme Court ruling — which also barred prosecutors from using evidence of “official” acts to prove crimes were committed unofficially — meant the jury should never have heard White House communications director Hope Hicks’ testimony about discussing media coverage of the Daniels payoff with then-President Trump in 2018 or seen tweets on Trump’s presidential Twitter account, among other exhibits.

Prosecutors have argued that the criminal scheme at the heart of their case had “no relationship whatsoever to any official duty of the presidency,” and that the former president’s conviction should stand based on overwhelming proof of his guilt regardless of whether a “sliver” of evidence ran afoul of the Supreme Court ruling that came down a month after he was found guilty.

In addition to arguing that he would need more time to appeal Merchan’s possible denial of the immunity-related motion, Trump last week argued that sentencing him before the election would constitute “naked election interference.”

He also repeated his unfounded claims that the judge is biased based on his daughter’s job as a political consultant for a progressive digital agency. Merchan has denied three requests to step down based on the allegations, in line with a 2023 determination by judicial ethics committee finding he wasn’t conflicted.

Prosecutors said Trump’s additional claims did not hold water.

“None of defendant’s remaining arguments merit any consideration,” prosecutors wrote, calling out Trump’s most recent argument that the sentencing shouldn’t go forward because of his daughter’s coworker’s social media activity about Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign.

“Defendant’s ostensibly new argument about the Court’s family member’s coworker’s tweets is bizarre and has nothing to do with the post-trial schedule.”

Trump also wants prosecutors barred from telling the judge what they think his punishment should be, an argument they said Monday was misplaced — noting the only way the sealed request could get out is if Merchan makes it public or Trump discloses it. The charges carry up to four years in prison or potentially a term of probation.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche declined to comment. In a statement, the Trump campaign said, “There should be no sentencing in this Election Interference Witch Hunt. As mandated by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all of the other Harris – Biden Hoaxes, should be dismissed.”

The Republican nominee still faces criminal cases in Washington, D.C., and Georgia for allegedly plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which he’s pleaded not guilty.

His federal election subversion case is expected to be diminished significantly by the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, and he last month succeeded in getting his federal classified documents case tossed by a judge he appointed, which prosecutors are appealing.

It will constitute another big win for Trump if Merchan decides to push back the sentencing by more than seven weeks by letting him dodge legal accountability in any of his cases before voters head to the polls on Nov. 5.

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