Trump’s hush-money sentencing has now officially been postponed

Donald Trump at his criminal hush-money trial in New York.

President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing in his New York criminal case will not move forward next week, a Manhattan judge ruled Friday.

The sentencing in the former and future president’s hush-money case had been on the calendar for Tuesday.

Justice Juan Merchan of the New York Supreme Court granted a stay of the sentencing in his ruling, as well as Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the case.

Merchan ordered that Trump’s motion was due by December 2 and that prosecutors should respond by December 9.

“In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned,” Steven Cheung, Trump’s spokesperson and incoming White House communications director, told B-17.

“President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases,” he added. “All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”

Trump was convicted in May by a Manhattan jury of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels.

Since Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election, his sentencing date had remained on hold, with his lawyers arguing for a dismissal.

In a court filing last week, Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, accepted a delay to Trump’s sentencing but made it clear that his office would fight to keep the case alive.

Bragg wrote in the court filing to the judge that one “non-dismissal option” would be to defer the sentencing “until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term.”

“The People believe that the Court should set a motion schedule for Defendant’s forthcoming motion to dismiss, which the People intend to oppose,” the filing said, adding: “The People deeply respect the Office of the President, are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, and acknowledge that Defendant’s inauguration will raise unprecedented legal questions.”