The sentencing of former President Donald Trump was originally set for July 11 but is now delayed to Sept. 18. This gives Trump time to present the argument that his felony conviction should be vacated, since the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that he had broad immunity from prosecution for duties related to his office.
New York District Court Justice Juan Merchan wrote a letter to Trump’s attorneys agreeing to the delay in People v. Trump, a case in which a Manhattan jury found him guilty of all 34 counts of falsification of business records in the first degree, a felony in New York State that was expressly developed by the Legislature to be used retroactively against Trump.
The charges related to a payment to Stormy Daniels in October of 2016, just before he was elected president and before he would have had any presidential immunity. But at least some of the record-keeping took place while he was in office and because prosecutors introduced other evidence about Trump’s presidential conduct as evidence, the question now is whether that evidence tainted the outcome.
The original sentencing date was to take place four days before the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. which is July 15-18. Trump is expected to win the nomination of the party; he has already won primaries in most states and is the presumptive nominee, with more than the 1,215 delegates needed to win the nomination at the convention.
The sentencing is now set to take place seven weeks before Election Day, which is Nov. 5.
