Trump sentencing in hush money case postponed until after US election
A judge has postponed the sentencing of Donald Trump in his hush money case until after the 5 November presidential election.
Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had been due to be sentenced in the criminal case on 18 September.
However, Manhattan Judge Juan M Merchan has now postponed that date to 26 November, writing that he wanted to avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive.
“The imposition of sentence will be adjourned 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,” he wrote.
“The court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution.”
The former president was convicted in May of falsifying business records, becoming the first former US president to be criminally convicted.
He was found guilty of covering up his then lawyer’s $130,000 (£99,000) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Mr Trump a decade earlier.
Stormy Daniels in 2018. Pic: Reuters
Trump, 77, denies the encounter and has vowed to appeal the verdict once he is sentenced.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, although punishments such as fines or probation are more common.
His lawyers had pushed for the delay arguing that sentencing him in the final weeks of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
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They also argued there would not be enough time before the planned sentencing date for the defence to potentially appeal the judge’s forthcoming ruling on their request to overturn the criminal conviction following the US Supreme Court‘s landmark presidential immunity ruling.
The Supreme Court found that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official acts in relation to a separate case Trump faces over his role in the 6 January riots in 2021.
Judge Merchan said he now plans to rule on that motion on 12 November – another delay from a previous 16 September date.
Responding to the judge’s ruling, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung insisted the case should be dismissed altogether.
“There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt,” Mr Cheung said in a statement.
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The decision to delay came as Trump left the campaign trail to attend a separate court hearing on Friday.
The hearing saw his lawyer urge an appeals court to throw out a $5m (£3.8m) verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing the writer E Jean Carroll in a department store in New York in the mid-1990s.
He was also found liable for defaming her after she wrote about the incident.
His lawyer John Sauer argued at the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that the original trial judge should not have taken evidence from other women who claimed the Republican presidential nominee sexually mistreated them decades ago.
Mr Sauer called it “a quintessential ‘he said, she said’ case” brought by a woman with a political motive to hurt Trump, referring to the fact that Ms Carroll is a Democrat.
At a news conference at Trump Tower after the hearing, Trump told reporters he was appealing a “ridiculous verdict”, insisting he had “never met” Ms Carroll.
In a separate judgement, which he is also appealing, Trump was ordered to pay Ms Carroll $18.3m (£14.4m) in compensation and $65m (£51m) in punitive damages.
On Thursday, Trump denied revised charges relating to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Next week Mr Trump will face Democrat nominee Kamala Harris in their first presidential TV debate in Philadelphia.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The upcoming debates are seen as potentially pivotal. The race for the White House is tight after Democrat support surged following President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the contest in favour of Ms Harris in July.
Some polls have even put the Democrat ahead. She would become the first female president as well as the first woman of black and South Asian descent to hold the Oval Office if she won.
US
Donald Trump says Vladimir Putin wants to meet – and that he and Barack Obama ‘probably’ like each other
Donald Trump says a meeting is being set up between himself and Vladimir Putin – and that he and Barack Obama “probably” like each other.
Republican US president-elect Mr Trump spoke to reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday, saying Russian president Mr Putin “wants to meet, and we are setting it up”.
“He has said that even publicly and we have to get that war over with. That’s a bloody mess,” Mr Trump said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday there was a “mutual desire” to set up a meeting – but added no details had been confirmed yet and that there may be progress once Mr Trump is inaugurated on 20 January.
“Moscow has repeatedly declared its openness to contacts with international leaders, including the US president, including Donald Trump,” Mr Peskov added.
“What is required is a mutual desire and political will to conduct dialogue and resolve existing problems through dialogue. We see that Mr Trump also declares his readiness to resolve problems through dialogue. We welcome this. There are still no specifics, we proceed from the mutual readiness for the meeting.”
Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in July 2017. Pic: AP
Trump on Obama: ‘We just got along’
Mr Trump also made some lighter remarks regarding a viral exchange between himself and former Democrat President Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter’s funeral on Thursday.
The pair sat together for the late president’s service in Washington DC on Thursday, and could be seen speaking for several minutes as the remaining mourners filed in before it began.
Mr Obama was seen nodding as his successor spoke before breaking into a grin.
Asked about the exchange, Mr Trump said: “I didn’t realise how friendly it looked.
“I said, ‘boy, they look like two people that like each other’. And we probably do.
“We have a little different philosophies, right? But we probably do. I don’t know. We just got along. But I got along with just about everybody.”
The amicable exchange comes after years of criticising each other in the public eye; it was Mr Trump who spread the so-called “birther” conspiracy theory about Mr Obama in 2011, falsely asserting that he was not born in the United States.
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Insults continued for years, with Mr Obama famously dedicating much of his final White House Correspondents’ Dinner speech in 2016 to jokes at his political rival’s expense.
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked the Obamas, saying the former president was “ineffective” and “terrible” and calling former first lady Michelle Obama “nasty” as recently as October last year.
On Kamala Harris’s campaign trail last year, Mr Obama said Mr Trump was a “78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down his golden escalator nine years ago”, while the former first lady said that “the consequences of him ever being president again are brutally serious.”
“He was asleep in his bed, where he still is right now, as I wait on the coroner.”
The haunting words of Kimiko Nickerson stopped us in our tracks.
Her father Rodney, 82, was sure the fire wouldn’t reach his home in Altadena. He was wrong.
The inferno cut through this quiet suburb north of Los Angeles at an alarming rate, its path unpredictable.
California wildfires latest – new evacuation order issued
She said: “He just didn’t want to evacuate. He’s been living here since 1968, and he’s been in Altadena my whole life.
“Like all of us on this block, in four blocks, he didn’t think it was going to be this devastating.
“It jumped whole streets, and it hit this community, but it didn’t touch the mountainside at all.”
They’re still trying to process the apocalyptic scenes here and grieving for those who did not get out.
Kimiko said: “I have no words to explain my feelings at this point in time.
“I’m just silent and numb and just mentally trying to go through the process.”
Rodney Nickerson decided not to leave his Altadena home.
Pic: Kimiko Nickerson
‘Truly apocalyptic scenes’ as flames swallow homes in LA wildfires evacuation zone
It would be impossible to exaggerate the scale of the destruction, cars burnt to a cinder, palm trees still alight, powerlines strewn across roads.
So many people have lost the roof over their head but there’s one thing Kimiko says she’ll never lose – her memories.
“Every laugh, every joke he told.
“He was a smart man. He read the LA Times from cover to cover and walked around the Rose Bowl every day.
“He was healthy, he was ambitious… but he went to sleep and died in his bed back there.”
The US Supreme Court has rejected a last-ditch attempt by Donald Trump to delay sentencing in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
The president-elect was convicted on 34 counts last May in New York of falsifying business records relating to payments made to Ms Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Prosecutors claimed he had paid her $130,000 (£105,300) in hush money to not reveal details of what Ms Daniels said was a sexual relationship in 2006.
Mr Trump has denied any liaison with Ms Daniels or any wrongdoing.
By a majority, the Supreme Court found his sentencing would not be an insurmountable burden during the presidential transition since the presiding judge, Juan M Merchan, has indicated he will not give Mr Trump jail time, fines or probation.
Mr Trump’s attorneys argued that evidence used in the Manhattan trial violated last summer’s Supreme Court ruling giving Mr Trump broad immunity from prosecution over acts he took as president.
At the least, they said, the sentencing should be delayed while their appeals play out to avoid distracting Mr Trump during the presidential transition.
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Stormy Daniels. Pic: AP
Mr Trump’s attorneys went to the justices after New York courts refused to postpone sentencing.
Judges in New York found that the convictions related to personal matters rather than Mr Trump’s official acts as president.
Mr Trump’s attorneys called the case politically motivated, and they said sentencing him now would be a “grave injustice” that threatens to disrupt the presidential transition as the Republican prepares to return to the White House.
Mr Trump has said he will appeal again: “I respect the court’s opinion – I think it was actually a very good opinion for us because you saw what they said, but they invited the appeal and the appeal is on the bigger issue. So, we’ll see how it works out,” he said at a dinner with Republican governors at his private club in Florida.
Because the New York case was a state, rather than federal crime, Mr Trump will not be able to pardon himself when he takes office on 20 January.
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