Judge in Trump bribe case delays sentencing after immunity request

The judge overseeing Donald J. Trump's criminal case in Manhattan has delayed his sentencing until Sept. 18 to assess whether a new ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court could jeopardize the former president's conviction, the judge said Tuesday in a letter to prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Judge Juan M. Merchan may not find a reason to overturn the jury’s verdict, but the delay is a surprising turn of events in a case that led to the first conviction of a U.S. president. With the election looming, the sentencing could be the only time the twice-impeached and four-time indicted former president faces criminal accountability as other cases are mired in delays.

Mr. Trump, who was convicted of falsifying business records related to the cover-up of a sex scandal during his 2016 presidential campaign, was originally scheduled to be sentenced on July 11, just days before he was formally nominated for president at the Republican National Convention. He faces up to four years in prison, but could be sentenced to a few weeks in jail or probation.

On Monday, the proposed sentence was undermined when the Supreme Court granted Mr. Trump broad immunity from prosecution for official acts he committed as president. The landmark decision, reached by a 6-3 vote along partisan lines, dealt a major blow to Mr. Trump’s federal criminal case in Washington, where he is accused of plotting to overturn his 2020 election defeat.

The ruling appears to have little direct impact on the Manhattan case, which concerns Mr. Trump’s personal activity during the 2016 campaign, not his presidency or official acts. And Judge Merchan may be skeptical of Mr. Trump’s efforts to use the ruling to overturn his conviction.

But Mr. Trump’s lawyers have argued 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 cannot indict a president for official acts, they also cannot cite evidence involving official acts to support other charges.

In a letter to Judge Merchan, Mr. Trump’s lawyers on Monday asked the judge to postpone sentencing while he considers their request to vacate the conviction. In response, the district attorney’s office wrote that prosecutors did not oppose Mr. Trump’s request.

While we find the defendants' arguments without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file and his presumptive request to adjourn sentencing pending the determination of his motion, wrote Joshua Steinglass, one of the assistant district attorneys who tried the case against the former president.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers proposed filing their court papers on July 10, and the district attorney’s office said it would respond two weeks later.

Judge Merchan granted those requests Tuesday and said he would rule on Mr. Trump’s motion to vacate the verdict on Sept. 6. Then, if a sentence is still necessary, the judge would impose it on Sept. 18, he said.

Attorney Alvin L. Bragg first brought criminal charges against Mr. Trump in March. Three other indictments followed in three other jurisdictions (Washington, Florida and Georgia), but Mr. Bragg’s case is likely the only one to go to trial before Election Day. If he is reelected, the cases will almost certainly stall.

In May, a jury of 12 New Yorkers convicted Mr. Trump on 34 counts of falsifying records related to a payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels, in the final days of the 2016 campaign. His then-manager, Michael D. Cohen, paid Ms. Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about her sexual relationship with Mr. Trump, who ultimately repaid Mr. Cohen.

Although paying bribes is not inherently illegal, Mr. Braggs’s prosecutors have accused Mr. Trump of asking his employees to lie on company documents to hide the nature of the reimbursement.

Prosecutors have portrayed the money as part of a broader plot by Mr. Trump and his allies to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors have presented evidence detailing how The National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid, played a central role in the plot with its catch-and-kill strategy of buying and burying negative stories about Mr. Trump and publishing sensational and false stories about his rivals.

After further information on these issues becomes available from July 10, 2024, it will be clear that the outcome of the trial cannot stand, Mr. Trump's lawyers wrote in their letter released Monday.

But the attempt to overturn the conviction is likely to be no easy feat. Much of the evidence in the case concerns Mr. Trump’s conduct during the campaign and transition after he was elected but before he was sworn in. Although he was present at the White House when the reimbursement checks were signed to Mr. Cohen, Mr. Bragg has argued that it was a personal act.

At least one federal judge has already ruled in Mr. Bragg’s favor. Before the trial, Mr. Trump had tried to take the case to federal court, arguing that the evidence related to his official actions as president. But a judge rejected that argument.

The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that this case was purely a personal matter for the president, a cover-up of an embarrassing event, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein wrote in an opinion last year. Paying an adult film star to keep quiet is not related to the president’s official actions. It in no way reflects on the color of the president’s official duties.

Even Monday’s Supreme Court decision appears to have somewhat discouraged Mr. Trump from rejecting the jury’s verdict. In a footnote, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that a prosecutor can refer to public records to illustrate an argument, a provision that appears to encompass much of the evidence Mr. Trump wants to reject, including his tweets, public statements and his personal financial disclosure form.

One aspect of the prosecution's evidence that may be more vulnerable is testimony from former White House staffers describing meetings and conversations with President Trump.

Prosecutors called Madeleine Westerhout, a former director of Oval Office operations, who testified about planning a February 2017 visit between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen, a meeting during which Mr. Cohen says they discussed repaying the hush money payment.

Prosecutors also questioned Hope Hicks, Mr. Trump’s former spokeswoman, who testified about her White House discussion with Mr. Trump after The Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 on the kickback deal with Ms. Daniels.

Mr. Trump’s view was that it was better to deal with it now, and that it would have been bad for the story to come out before the election, Ms. Hicks recalled on the stand, testimony that Mr. Steinglass called devastating in his closing argument.

But it is unclear whether the conversation constitutes an official act, simply because of where it took place. And during the trial, Judge Merchan was skeptical of the defense's argument that the prosecution should not question Ms. Hicks about the conversation.

The objection is noted, he told Mr. Trump's lawyer, before allowing the testimony to continue.

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