On Monday, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Donald Trump took steps to not only throw out the conviction from his sham trial in New York but also to postpone his sentencing.
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“In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Mr. Trump’s lawyers sought permission to file a motion to set aside the verdict, doing so just hours after the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling involving one of Mr. Trump’s other criminal cases,” the New York Times reported. “The letter will not be public until Tuesday at the earliest, after which prosecutors will have a chance to respond.”
On Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office announced that despite contesting the motion to overturn the hush money verdict based on immunity claims, it would not oppose delaying former President Trump’s sentencing.
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Trump’s sentencing is scheduled for July 11, mere days before he is set to accept the Republican Party’s nomination for president. However, the prosecution’s response suggests it might be postponed by a few weeks. Trump’s lawyers requested a July 10 deadline to file their immunity arguments, which would likely delay the sentencing. Steinglass requested two additional weeks for prosecutors to respond, agreeing to delay the sentencing until at least July 24.
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Here is the letter from Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass:
Dear Justice Merchan:
We are in receipt of defendant’s pre-motion letter dated July 1, 2024 seeking leave to file a motion to set aside the verdict pursuant to CPL § 330.30(1) based upon the Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, 2024 WL 3237603. In that letter, defendant requested until July 10, 2024 to submit a memorandum of law in support of such motion. While defendant’s letter states that he does “not object to an adjournment of the July 11, 2024 sentencing date,” his request to file moving papers on July 10 is necessarily a request to adjourn the sentencing hearing currently scheduled for July 11, 2024 pending resolution of the motion.
Although we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file and his putative request to adjourn sentencing pending determination of his motion. We respectfully request a deadline of July 24, 2024—two weeks after defendant’s requested deadline—to file and serve a response.
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In contrast to his pending criminal cases, where Trump asserted presidential immunity, he never invoked such a defense during the trial over his legal non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels.
“The effort to set aside the conviction might be a long shot. The Manhattan case centers on acts Mr. Trump took as a candidate, not a president,” the New York Times notes. “Yet his lawyers are likely to argue that prosecutors built their case partly on evidence from his time in the White House. And under the Supreme Court’s new ruling, prosecutors not only may not charge a president for any official acts, but also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to bolster other accusations.”