Donald Trump asks judge to delay sentencing in hush money case until after November election

Donald Trump’s defense lawyer Thursday asked the judge in his Manhattan hush money case to postpone the former president’s September sentencing until after the November election, arguing that to do otherwise would fuel doubts about future court proceedings' integrity.

In a letter to state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan published Thursday, attorney Todd Blanche also requested the Sept. 18 sentencing be pushed back because of its proximity to the judge's ruling on whether presidential immunity applies to the state case. Merchan is set to announce his decision on the immunity question Sept. 16.

The former president was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up a six-figure reimbursement to his former fixer Michael Cohen.

Cohen had paid former adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence on a tryst she had with Trump in 2006 at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament. Prosecutors held that the payments were made to keep the information from the voting public and should have been reported as campaign expenditures.

The conviction carries a 4-year maximum prison sentence for each charge, but it is more likely that Trump will receive little or no time behind bars given the nonviolent nature of the offense and his age, 78. This is also the first conviction for Trump or any other former president.

The judge originally set the sentencing date for early September but in July the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a federal criminal case against the former president that he was immune from prosecution for official acts he performed while in office. The high court went further, saying that some acts that were not official, but related to his role as president, were also immune.

Trump’s lawyers filed motions with Merchan arguing that witness testimony from former White House staffers and tweets posted while Trump was in office should not have been presented to the jury and tainted the verdict.

"Put simply, until [the Manhattan district attorney’s] presidential immunity violations are addressed fully and finally, this court may not "adjudicate" the matter — including at sentencing," Blanche wrote in his letter.

Blanche also argued that the defense staff needed more time to respond legally to whatever decision he makes on the immunity issue.

"The requested adjournment is also necessary to allow President Trump adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options in response to any adverse ruling," Blanche wrote. "A single business day is an unreasonably short period of time for President Trump to seek to vindicate these rights."

On Tuesday, Merchan denied the Trump defense team’s third attempt to have him removed from the trial over previous campaign work by the judge's daughter for Vice President Kamala Harris.

In past motions, Trump's team had raised the issue of her campaign work as a conflict of interest, but the state court’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics ruled there was none.

By postponing the sentencing until after voting in November, Blanche said, "the court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings."

With AP