Donald Trump’s legal team has requested a delay in the sentencing for his New York conviction related to hush money payments to an adult film star, asking the judge to postpone it until after the November election.
Attorney Todd Blanche argued that the current sentencing date, September 18, does not allow sufficient time for Trump to appeal a separate hearing scheduled for September 16 regarding presidential immunity, which stems from a recent Supreme Court ruling.
In a letter to the judge on Wednesday, Blanche contended that there is no valid reason for expediting the sentencing other than possible “naked election-interference objectives.” Trump was convicted in May by a New York jury on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, with the aim of preventing her from revealing an alleged affair. This conviction marked Trump as the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
Blanche stated in the letter that delaying sentencing until after early voting begins in the presidential election would help mitigate, if not completely eliminate, concerns about the integrity of future proceedings. On Wednesday, Trump’s team failed for the third time to have Judge Juan Merchan removed from the case, arguing that his daughter’s work for a Democratic-leaning organization created a “perceived conflict of interest” and that he should recuse himself.
