Trump judge delays hush-money decision

New York Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday announced the delay of his pending decision on whether to overturn a jury's guilty verdict against former president and now President-elect Donald Trump.

In a statement to counsel, Merchan wrote, "The joint application for a stay of the current deadlines... until November 19, is granted." Merchan was originally set to announce his decision on Tuesday.

Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up an affair that threatened to derail his successful 2016 presidential campaign.

Trump's lawyers have called for Merchan to dismiss the case so that the defendant, the first convicted criminal ever elected to the highest office in the United States, could do his job, saying it was necessary "to avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump's ability to govern."

'Unprecedented circumstances'

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office will now have until November 19 to consider how to approach the case in light of Trump's inauguration in January 2025.

"These are unprecedented circumstances," prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote in an email to the court. He said prosecutors need to consider how to balance the "competing interests" of the jury's verdict and the presidency.

The powers of the office of the presidency have been greatly expanded thanks to a recent US Supreme Court ruling that is largely seen as granting blanket immunity to the nation's chief executive for official acts. The court, however, did not define what qualifies as an official act.

The legal cases against Donald Trump

Beyond Trump's conviction on 34 counts of various fraud in New York, he also faces charges in two federal cases — for the illegal retention of classified government documents and for his role in the January 6, 2021, effort to violently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. A further case on his attempts at election interference in Georgia in 2020 is also pending.

With his return to the White House, Trump can be assured that the federal cases against him will be scrapped. He has attempted to get the New York case transferred to a federal court where he could quash it, but so far that has not happened. It isunlikely that the Georgia case will move forward.

js/sms (AFP, AP)