The judge overseeing President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money trial on Friday canceled the sentencing hearing that had been set for Nov. 26 without immediately setting a new date.
The decision, which had been expected, allows Trump’s team more time to argue why the case should be fully dismissed.
Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts in May, but his election to a second presidential term pushed the already unprecedented case further into uncharted waters.
The brief order issued by New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan set new deadlines: Trump’s team has until Dec. 2 to file its brief on dismissal, and prosecutors have until Dec. 9 to file theirs.
Merchan had been expected to already weigh in on how the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity decision affected the case, but, after Trump was elected, he postponed that. The Supreme Court decision, handed down in July, stated that presidents enjoy broad immunity from criminal prosecution for actions they take as part of their official duties.
The actions at the center of the hush money case relate to falsified New York state business records. In the days before the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Michael Cohen, arranged a $130,000 payment to the porn actor Stormy Daniels on behalf of his boss, in order to keep Daniels from going public with details of her alleged affair with Trump at a time when his campaign already appeared to be faltering.
Trump then reimbursed Cohen with monthly payments doled out over the course of about a year. The reimbursements were documented as “legal expenses,” allegedly obscuring their true purpose of influencing the 2016 campaign.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a court filing earlier this week that he would not oppose Trump’s motion to postpone the Nov. 26 sentencing to allow more time for legal debate.
Bragg indicated he would fight against a total dismissal of the case, however.