Trump Seeks to Delay Hush Money Sentencing Until After Election

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump asked a New York judge to delay sentencing in his hush-money criminal case until after the November presidential election, arguing that going ahead with the hearing before voters go to the polls would advance “naked election-interference objectives.”

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The former president made the request in a letter Wednesday to Justice Juan Merchan in Manhattan, who is scheduled to sentence Trump on Sept. 18. Trump faces as long as four years behind bars after becoming the first former president convicted of a crime, though a far shorter term is also possible.

There “is no valid countervailing reason for the court to keep the current sentencing date,” Trump attorney Todd Blanche said in the letter, which was made public Thursday. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”

The letter came shortly after Merchan rejected Trump’s third request to step down over allegations of bias involving the judge’s daughter, who partly owns a digital marketing and fundraising firm that has worked for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump is also awaiting a decision on his request to vacate the verdict and dismiss the indictment following the US Supreme Court’s landmark ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal charges.

Trump, 78, was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. A Manhattan jury found him guilty on all counts following a weeks-long trial.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office declined to immediately comment.

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