Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday they are not opposed to delaying the trial. Donald TrumpThe president’s conviction in his hush-money case follows Monday’s Supreme Court ruling that he enjoys immunity for some of his actions as president in his separate election interference case.
Several assistant district attorneys made their position known in a letter to the New York judge Juan Merchanwho is presiding over the hush-money case. Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush-money payment his former lawyer Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels toward the end of the 2016 presidential campaign to cover up an alleged affair. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels.
He was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, but that hearing will now likely be postponed until after the Republican National Convention, which begins on July 15.
The prosecutors’ letter is in response to a letter Trump’s lawyers filed Monday ahead of the motion, in which they said they wanted to delay his sentencing in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
“While we find the defendant’s arguments without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to proceed with the trial and his purported request for a stay of sentencing pending the determination of his motion,” prosecutors wrote to Merchan.
Prosecutors asked Trump’s legal team to file the request to delay the hearing by July 24, two weeks after the originally requested deadline.
The letter was signed by the assistant district attorneys who prosecuted the hush money case, including Joshua Steinglass, Matthew Colangelo, Christopher Conroy, Susan Hoffinger and Becky Mangold.
Trump’s lawyers sent their brief to Merchan on Monday after the Supreme Court ruled on Trump’s immunity claim. A 6-3 majority ruled that Trump enjoys immunity in the federal election interference case for certain official acts, but may not have immunity for unofficial acts.
The former president’s legal team said they wanted to brief Merchan on how the immunity ruling could affect the verdict in the hush-money case, as part of their effort to overturn the conviction.
Many of the acts used as evidence in the hush money trial occurred before Trump took office in 2017.
The immunity ruling is also likely to further delay proceedings in the federal and Georgia election interference cases.
Biden campaign spokesman James Singer said in a statement Monday that the decision “has nothing to do with Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts for paying hush money to a porn star and then breaking the law to cover it up.”
“Ultimately, Donald Trump is a convicted felon precisely because he believed he was above the law and was willing to do anything to get into power,” Singer said. “That’s why he’s a threat and he must be defeated.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
