In the New York hush money trial against Donald Trump, the sentencing will be postponed until September 18. The sentencing will be postponed until September 18 at 10 a.m. local time “if this is still necessary,” says a document published on Tuesday by Judge Juan Merchan. This is to make it possible to take into account the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday, which granted Trump criminal immunity for “official” acts during his presidency.
The sentence against Trump will therefore be announced seven weeks before the US presidential election on November 5. In the trial on May 30, the jury found Trump guilty on all 34 counts of having covered up a hush money payment to the former porn actress Stormy Daniels by falsifying business documents. Trump is thus the first former US president in history to be convicted of a criminal offense.
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday that Trump was entitled to immunity for “official” acts during his presidency, his lawyer Todd Blanche wrote to the judge asking for permission to challenge the guilty verdict and to stay the sentencing hearing.
A prison sentence for the 78-year-old, who wants to run against incumbent Joe Biden in the presidential election in November in a repeat of the 2020 duel, is considered unlikely. Since Trump is being convicted of a criminal offense for the first time and it is not a violent offense, experts expect a suspended sentence or a fine.
Trump’s lawyers, however, want to achieve a complete annulment of the guilty verdict and are obviously encouraged in their efforts by the Supreme Court’s decision on the immunity of Trump and of US presidents in general.
The hush money of $130,000 (around €122,000 in today’s value) to Stormy Daniels was paid before the 2016 election, i.e. before Trump took office in the White House. However, it was paid by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen, who, according to the indictment, later received the money back from Trump when he was already president.
However, the Supreme Court did not grant Trump complete immunity for all of his actions during his time as president. The court expressly excluded from protection against prosecution those actions that are of an “unofficial” – i.e. private – nature.
The Supreme Court’s decision also specifically referred to another case, namely the indictment of Trump in federal court for his attempts to retroactively overturn his 2020 election defeat to Biden.
