A New York judge has delayed former President Donald Trump's sentencing on felony criminal charges until Nov. 26, APA reports citing NBC News.
"This is not a decision this Court makes lightly but it is the decision which in this Court's view, best advances the interests of justice," Judge Juan Merchan wrote in the decision handed down Friday.
Merchan issued the ruling after Trump's attorneys had asked him to postpone the Sept. 18 sentencing until after the election to allow them to appeal a pending ruling involving presidential immunity.
That ruling was expected by Sept. 16 — just two days before what would have been the first ever sentencing of a former president on criminal charges. Trump was convicted in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels near the end of the 2016 presidential campaign.
“A single business day is an unreasonably short period of time” for such an appeal, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove argued in an Aug. 14 filing. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”
Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said they would "defer to the Court on whether an adjournment is warranted to allow for orderly appellate litigation" of any Trump appeal, but "would be prepared to appear for sentencing on any future date the Court sets."
Merchan said in his order Friday that he took that as the DA essentially consenting to the request. He also acknowledged that the case "is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation's history."