NEW YORK (AP) — A judge confirmed Friday that President-elect Donald Trump will not be sentenced this month in his hush-money case, but instead set a schedule for prosecutors and his lawyers to flesh out their ideas about what to do next have to do.
Amid a flurry of filings in the case since Trump’s election victory this month, it had already become clear that the Nov. 26 sentencing date would not stand. Judge Juan M. Merchan’s order formalized that Friday without issuing a new one.
He called for more filings from both sides over the next two and a half weeks on how to proceed in light of Trump’s impending return to the White House.
Trump’s lawyers want the case dismissed outright and immediately. They have said this would otherwise hinder his presidential transition and duties.
Prosecutors have indicated they are willing to put the case on hold, perhaps as long as he remains in office, but they do not want the case to be dropped altogether. District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Manhattan Democrat, has said the solution must balance the obligations of the presidency with “the sanctity of the jury’s verdict.”
Bragg’s office declined to comment on Friday’s ruling. Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung called it “a decisive victory” for Trump.
Trump, a Republican, was convicted in May of falsifying his company’s records to conceal the true nature of a series of payments that netted porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000. She received it, through Trump’s then-lawyer, in the waning days of the 2016 presidential campaign.
The payout was intended to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she had with the married Trump a decade earlier. He denies her claim and says he did nothing wrong.
