Trump’s sentencing for hush-money case delayed until after US election

Washington: Donald Trump will not be sentenced in his historic hush money trial until after the US election, in a major victory for the Republican candidate as the race for the White House reaches its home stretch.

Three months after he was criminally convicted for falsifying business records to cover up a sex scandal with a porn star, Trump won a reprieve on Friday (Saturday AEST) after the presiding judge delayed the scheduled September 18 sentence to avoid the perception of political interference.

Former US president Donald Trump arrives for a news conference at Trump Tower in New York on Friday.Credit: Bloomberg

In announcing his decision, Judge Juan Merchan, whom Trump has repeatedly attacked as a Democrat puppet, said he would postpone the sentencing until November 26, in part, “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”.

“The court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution,” Merchan wrote in his four-page ruling.

“Adjourning decision on the motion and sentencing should dispel any suggestion that the court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and/or candidate for any office.”

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on stage during a campaign stop, in North Hampton, New Hampshire.Credit: AP

The delay comes amid polls showing the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris has tightened, with a fresh forecast by statistician Nate Silver suggesting Harris is more likely to win the popular vote but Trump has a greater chance of winning the 270 electoral college votes needed to become president – a similar scenario to what played out in 2016 against Hillary Clinton.

This is despite Harris’ campaign announcing a record funding haul of $US361 million ($541 million) in August – nearly tripling the $US130 million brought in by the former president over the same period. She has also received another high-profile Republican endorsement in former vice president Dick Cheney, who served in George W. Bush’s administration.

Cheney was one of the most influential and hawkish conservatives of his era and has long been loathed by Democrats.

But one day after his daughter, Liz Cheney, the congresswoman who led the hearings into the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, revealed she would support Harris, Dick Cheney declared: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump ... He can never be trusted with power again.”

Former vice-president Dick Cheney (left) with his daughter, then-newly-elected representative Liz Cheney in 2017.Credit: AP

Merchan’s decision caps off a lucky legal streak for Trump, who was meant to face four separate criminal trials this year, including one in Washington for trying to subvert the 2020 election; another in Georgia for trying to overthrow Joe Biden’s electoral college victory in that state; and another one in Florida for his handling of classified documents.

All those cases had been delayed, leaving the hush money case in New York – in which he sought to interfere in the 2016 election he won against Clinton – the only one for which he faced accountability before voters head to the ballot box on November 5.

Trump’s so-called hush money trial lasted six weeks, involved 22 witnesses and became one of the hottest tickets in town, with people lining up for hours – and sometimes even paying professional line sitters – to get one of the few seats inside the Manhattan criminal court.

At its conclusion a jury found Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to “catch and kill” damning stories that could have derailed his chances of becoming president.

With the help of National Enquirer tabloid king David Pecker and his Australian content chief Dylan Howard, numerous stories were buried on Trump’s behalf, including that of an affair with former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal, which Pecker’s company paid $US150,000 to kill, and an unverified story from a hotel doorman about a love child, which cost $US30,000.

However, the 34 charges for which Trump was found guilty by a jury specifically relate to a $US130,000 hush money payment his fixer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump in 2006 when he was newly married to his current wife, Melania.

This crossed a legal line, prosecutors say, because Trump reimbursed Cohen and falsified records to cover the whole thing up, thereby breaching electoral laws.

Trump, who has consistently said he is innocent, was initially due to be sentenced on July 11. However, this was delayed to September after the US Supreme Court’s explosive decision to grant former presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts conducted in office.

The Supreme Court’s immunity decision sent shockwaves across Democratic ranks, with President Joe Biden warning that it would allow Trump to act like a king if re-elected in November.

Ex-president Donald Trump, his attorney Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels.Credit: AP

Trump’s lawyers had used the ruling to push for a delay, arguing that sentencing him in the heat of an election campaign would amount to political interference. Prosecutors did not oppose the delay, saying they would defer to Merchan’s decision.

“This is not a decision this court makes lightly but it is the decision which, in this court’s view, best advances the interests of justice,” Merchan wrote.

Trump’s legal victory came hours after he appeared in another judge’s Manhattan courtroom, as his lawyers fought to overturn a $US5 million civil court verdict finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll.

Carrol accused Trump of assaulting her in the lingerie dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s, and then defaming her when she went public with the allegations in 2019.

E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court after Trump appeared in court on Friday.Credit: AP

But during a 45-minute press conference at Trump Tower afterwards, the 78-year-old presidential hopeful suggested once again that Carroll was a liar and called her case against him “Monica Lewinsky Part II” (a reference to the White House intern Bill Clinton had sex with) and referenced the infamous dress that played a pivotal role in the impeachment against the then Democrat president.

Trump also brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten, and implied he would not have assaulted some of his accusers due to their looks.

“I never touched her. I would have had no interest in meeting her in any way, shape or form,” he said of Carroll.

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.