Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan agreed on Friday to once again delay Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush-money/election interference case until after the November election.
Sentencing has been delayed until November 26th, several weeks after the final votes are cast in the presidential election. Should he win, he would use the SCOTUS immunity decision to end all prosecutions against him.
Merchan, who had repeatedly denied Trump's requests to recuse himself from the case, is still considering Trump's legal team's request to overturn the verdict on immunity grounds.
Trump’s lawyers argued that delaying sentencing until after the election would also allow time to "weigh his next steps" after Merchan rules on the request to reverse his conviction and dismiss the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.
In his order Friday, Merchan delayed a decision on that until November 12th.
Judge Merchan wrote in his decision that he was postponing the sentencing “to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.
“The Court is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution,” he added.
That's the polar opposite of Judge Tanya Chutkan's decision to move forward with Trump's January 6th case following Jack Smith's superseding indictment. Trump gets his October Surprise early based on the schedule presented to his lawyers.
Judge Chutkan said she was focused on the four-count indictment, not the presidential election.
This is a developing story, please check back for updates.