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Donald Trump’s sentencing in the Manhattan “hush money” case has been delayed indefinitely, clearing all criminal proceedings from the president-elect’s calendar as he prepares to re-enter the White House.
Justice Juan Merchan on Friday agreed to adjourn the sentencing, which was due to take place next week, until he decides on a request from Trump’s lawyers that the case be dismissed immediately “in the interests of justice”.
Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who brought the criminal charges in question, has indicated that he will oppose the request for dismissal.
The decision by Merchan makes it increasingly unlikely that Trump will face any repercussions from the four criminal cases brought against him over the past few years.
In a statement, Trump spokesman Steven Cheung welcomed the adjournment, writing: “All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again.”
The two federal cases — one over alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and other related to the retention of classified documents — are being wound down by Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, in line with its long-standing policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.
Another election interference case, brought by state prosecutors in Georgia, has stalled as an appellate court decides whether it should be thrown out due to an undisclosed relationship between the district attorney and a prosecutor brought on to lead the case.
Trump’s lawyers were already attempting to argue that the New York case, which was the only one of the four to go to trial, should be dismissed in light of the Supreme Court’s decision to grant US presidents broad immunity for official acts committed while in office.
But it was always unlikely that Trump would face prison time, as the non-violent crimes on which he was convicted earlier this year — falsifying business records in connection with a scheme to pay off a porn actor to conceal an alleged affair — rarely result in incarceration.
While he has successfully side-stepped his criminal cases, Trump remains embroiled in civil litigation, and is still liable to pay more than $450mn after being found to have inflated the value of his assets in representations to banks.
He was also ordered, in two different cases, to pay more than $88mn to E Jean Carroll, a writer who claimed Trump had assaulted her in the 1990s and subsequently defamed her.
Trump is appealing against those civil judgments.