President Donald Trump’s criminal sentencing for falsifying business records, originally scheduled for July 11, is delayed until September 18 as the judge in the case weighs whether a recent Supreme Court decision clarifying the scope of presidential immunity will impact his conviction.
Manhattan prosecutors revealed in court filings on Tuesday that they will not oppose Trump’s motion to postpone his criminal sentencing, which Trump filed just after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents have immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that fall within their “core constitutional powers.”
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said that while “we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request” to delay Trump’s sentencing around two weeks past the original sentencing date of July 11. The delay means that Trump won’t be sentenced until after he is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15.
Trump’s attorney requested on Monday that Judge Juan M. Merchan weigh in on the 6-3 Supreme Court decision granting Trump immunity from being prosecuted for actions taken as part of his official duties as president, and consider how it could affect his recent conviction in New York.
“The Supreme Court was very clear that for acts that fall within the outer perimeter of the president’s official responsibilities, acts that are presumptively immune from prosecution, that evidence of those acts cannot be used to try essentially private acts,” Will Scharf, one of Trump’s lawyers, told CNN.
The former president was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May. Trump’s attorneys also said on Monday that certain evidence “should never have been put before the [New York] jury,” given the Supreme Court’s recent ruling.
“The verdicts in this case violate the presidential immunity doctrine and create grave risks of ‘an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself,'” his attorneys said, quoting Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion. “After further briefing on these issues beginning on July 10, 2024, it will be manifest that the trial result cannot stand.”