Prosecutors balk at Trump’s bid to delay post-conviction hush money rulings

NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan prosecutors balked Tuesday at Donald Trump ‘s effort to delay post-trial decisions in his New York hush money criminal case while he seeks to have a federal court intervene and potentially overturn his felony conviction. However, they said they could be OK with postponing the former president’s Sept. 18 sentencing.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office argued in a letter to the trial judge that he has no legal obligation to hold off on post-trial decisions after Trump asked the U.S. District Court in Manhattan last week to take control of the case from the state court where it was tried.

Prosecutors urged the judge, Juan M. Merchan, not to delay his rulings on two key defense requests: Trump’s call to delay sentencing until after the November election, and his bid to overturn the verdict and dismiss the case in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.

Merchan has said he will rule Sept. 16 on Trump’s motion to overturn the verdict. His decision on delaying sentencing has been expected in the coming days.

Trump was convicted in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 presidential run. Trump has denied her claim and said he did nothing wrong.

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