Judge in Trump criminal case delays sentencing indefinitely
The judge in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case ordered on Friday that sentencing be delayed indefinitely, a legal win for the President-elect as he prepares to return to the White House.
dismiss… is granted,” added Merchan’s order.
In a separate 2020 election interference case, Special Counsel Jack Smith moved to vacate deadlines, delaying the case indefinitely — but not yet dropping it outright.
The move was in line with long-standing Department of Justice policy not to prosecute sitting US presidents.
The Manhattan prosecutor previously acknowledged in correspondence with the court that “these are unprecedented circumstances” and called for the competing interests of the jury’s verdict and Trump’s election to be balanced.
Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr previously said that both the New York case as well as others around the country had been “plainly brought for political purposes (and) have now been extensively aired and rejected in the court of public opinion.”
Trump has repeatedly derided the hush money case as a witch hunt, saying it “should be rightfully terminated
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases: one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president, he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, has reportedly begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
AFP
