Postponement of sentencing
Judge rejects Trump motion in New York hush money trial
Updated on January 7, 2025 – 9:35 a.mReading time: 2 minutes
Donald Trump will receive a verdict in the hush money trial this week. The responsible judge has made a final decision.
A New York judge has rejected future US President Donald Trump’s request to postpone Friday’s sentencing hearing against Trump in the hush money trial. “This court has examined the arguments of the defendant (…) and finds that they are largely a repetition of the arguments that he has already made on several occasions in the past,” said Judge Juan Merchan in a two-page decision on Monday. Therefore the application is rejected.
The public prosecutor’s office had previously spoken out against postponing the sentencing, explained Merchan.
In a submission made public on Monday, Trump’s lawyers requested that the appointment on January 10 be canceled and only allow the final examination of their submissions on the immunity issue.
In the middle of last year, the Supreme Court granted US presidents significantly expanded immunity, which Trump’s lawyers are relying on in order to have the hush money proceedings stopped completely. Trump begins his second term as US President on January 20th. It is likely that Trump will also appeal the judge’s latest decision.
Trump was found guilty in the New York trial in May of covering up a hush money payment of $130,000 to former porn actress Stormy Daniels by forging business documents before his 2016 election victory.
Judge Merchan, who was under massive political pressure, had postponed the announcement of the sentence several times, so that the outcome of the New York trial was still open at the time of the presidential election on November 5th. Last Friday he set January 10th as the date for the sentencing and at the same time stated that a prison sentence was not to be expected.
The punishment is unlikely to have a direct impact on Trump’s presidency. Judge Merchan had already indicated that he was not inclined to impose a prison sentence on Trump. The US Congress officially confirmed the Republican’s victory in the presidential election on Monday.
Trump is the first convicted felon to run for president. After his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, which was marked by numerous scandals, the right-wing populist was charged in a total of four criminal cases, including for election manipulation and in the context of the storming of the Capitol by his radical supporters.
The two criminal proceedings against him by the federal judiciary have now been dropped on the grounds that the US Department of Justice generally does not investigate sitting presidents. The proceedings in the US state of Georgia were also paused.
