Judge postpones decision to vacate Trump’s hush money conviction

Judge to oversee Donald Trump’s trial New York criminal case Postponed an important decision on Tuesday on whether the president-elect has any convictions. Correspondence between the parties should be set aside.

Trump’s team wants the case dismissed, and the prosecution says it needs time to consider next steps now that Trump has been elected to a second term. The clerk informed both parties in the court filing that the court had given them one week to state their positions.

In his letter to the judge Juan MerchanProsecutors said they granted Trump’s request to stay to evaluate how to proceed given his new status as president-elect.

“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the allegations made by defense counsel in correspondence with the People on Friday require careful consideration to ensure that the next steps in this case (1) appropriately balance the competing interests of the jury regarding a verdict of guilty with a presumption of regularity following the hearing and (2) the Office of the President,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in a letter to the judge.

“Accordingly, the People respectfully request that the Court postpone the upcoming scheduled dates to allow time to consider these recent developments and set November 19, 2024 as the deadline for the People to advise the Court on our view of appropriate steps.” he added.

In response, Merchan’s clerk said the joint continuance request had been granted and instructed prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to state their position by 10 a.m. on the 19th.

Trump was tentatively scheduled to be sentenced on November 26, and it is unclear when or if the judge will proceed with the sentence.

Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung celebrated the development in a statement, saying Merchan “complyed with all previously scheduled deadlines, including sentencing in this case.”

He said Trump’s election “makes it abundantly clear that Americans want an immediate end to the weaponization of our justice system, including this case that should never have been brought.”

Trump was convicted in May of 34 felonies related to hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. He denied any wrongdoing.

The decision, which Merchan is expected to make on Tuesday, concerned Trump’s request to overturn the conviction and dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the case contains some evidence that prosecutors should not be able to use. Supreme Court decision About presidential immunity

The Supreme Court decision came on July 1, days before Trump was scheduled to be sentenced in New York.

The New York case was just one of four criminal cases filed after Trump left office and went to trial in 2021, and the jury verdict first A former president was convicted of a crime.

Ministry of Justice is now to end and two federal criminal cases filed against the former and future president. The Justice Department’s take on Trump’s federal cases stems from a 2000 report memory It confirmed the Watergate-era conclusion by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel that prosecuting a sitting president would “impose undue direct or official interference with the administration of the presidency.”

With these cases over, another case against Trump remains pending: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis blackmail case He alleges that he and more than a dozen co-conspirators illegally tried to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

That case has been paused while Trump and some defendants demand that an appeals court remove Willis from the case because of an alleged conflict of interest. Given the status of the case, legal experts told NBC News that any Trump lawsuit should wait until Trump is removed from office in 2029 due to constitutional issues.