Trump hush money trial: Judge delays Sep 18 sentencing until after November presidential elections

A New York judge on Friday (Sep 6) delayed former United States President Donald Trump’s sentencing in the hush money trial until after thepresidential elections which will take place on November 5. Judge Juan Merchan gave the ruling after Trump’s attorneys urged him to postpone the September 18 sentencing to allow the GOP leader to also appeal a pending ruling involving presidential immunity.

"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," the judge wrote.

The ruling in the case was expected on September 18.

Trump has already been convicted in May on 34 counts of manipulating business records to hide payments allegedly made to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.

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The Friday order was the second time Trump’s sentencing has been postponed, in the backdrop of a US Supreme Court order expanding presidential immunity in an unrelated federal criminal case against the Republican presidential candidate.

E Jean Carroll sex abuse case

Meanwhile, lawyers of Donald Trump and one-time columnist EJean Carrollclashed in a federal appeals court, on Friday in lower Manhattan. Attorneys of the former president argued they should get a new trial after a jury found that the GOP leader sexually assaulted Carroll.

Last year, a nine-member jury awarded $5 million in damages to Carroll after a two-week trial.

The court’s decision is not expected to come before the November presidential elections. Trump attorney John Sauer argued that it was a “quintessential he-said-she-said case” that involved a plaintiff with a political motive to bring a story.

The 2023 decision against Trump was the first in a series of several cases filed against the GOP leader. It was also the first time when he was found guilty of sexuallyabusing a woman.

Carroll had alleged that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her in 2019 when he denied the attack.

(With inputs from agencies)