Judge delays Donald Trump’s sentencing in hush money case until after November election

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case has been postponed until after the November election, granting the former president a hard-won reprieve as he navigates the homestretch of his current campaign and the aftermath of his criminal conviction.

In a decision Friday, Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing until Nov. 26, three weeks after the final votes are cast in the U.S. presidential election. The sentencing had been scheduled for Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.

The delay is the latest bit of good fortune for Trump in an election season that has been laden with legal perils for him.

The new date means voters will choose their next president without knowing whether the Republican nominee is going to jail, nor whether he will even be sentenced at all. Merchan now plans to rule Nov. 12 on Trump’s request to overturn the verdict and toss out the case because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s July presidential immunity ruling.

Merchan explained 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.”

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