A judge has postponed the sentencing of Donald Trump in his hush money case until after the 5 November presidential election.
Trump, the Republican nominee for president, had been due to be sentenced in the criminal case on 18 September.
However, Manhattan Judge Juan M Merchan has now postponed that date to 26 November, writing that he wanted to avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive.
“The imposition of sentence will be adjourned to avoid any appearance – however unwarranted – that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching presidential election in which the defendant is a candidate,” he wrote.
“The court is a fair, impartial and apolitical institution.”
The former president was convicted in May of falsifying business records, becoming the first former US president to be criminally convicted.
He was found guilty of covering up his then lawyer’s $130,000 (£99,000) payment to porn star Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Mr Trump a decade earlier.
Trump, 77, denies the encounter and has vowed to appeal the verdict once he is sentenced.
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, although punishments such as fines or probation are more common.
His lawyers had pushed for the delay arguing that sentencing him in the final weeks of his campaign to retake the White House would amount to election interference.
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They also argued there would not be enough time before the planned sentencing date for the defence to potentially appeal the judge’s forthcoming ruling on their request to overturn the criminal conviction following the US Supreme Court‘s landmark presidential immunity ruling.
The Supreme Court found that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official acts in relation to a separate case Trump faces over his role in the 6 January riots in 2021.
Judge Merchan said he now plans to rule on that motion on 12 November – another delay from a previous 16 September date.
Responding to the judge’s ruling, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung insisted the case should be dismissed altogether.
“There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA’s Election Interference Witch Hunt,” Mr Cheung said in a statement.
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The decision to delay came as Trump left the campaign trail to attend a separate court hearing on Friday.
The hearing saw his lawyer urge an appeals court to throw out a $5m (£3.8m) verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing the writer E Jean Carroll in a department store in New York in the mid-1990s.
He was also found liable for defaming her after she wrote about the incident.
His lawyer John Sauer argued at the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan that the original trial judge should not have taken evidence from other women who claimed the Republican presidential nominee sexually mistreated them decades ago.
Mr Sauer called it “a quintessential ‘he said, she said’ case” brought by a woman with a political motive to hurt Trump, referring to the fact that Ms Carroll is a Democrat.
At a news conference at Trump Tower after the hearing, Trump told reporters he was appealing a “ridiculous verdict”, insisting he had “never met” Ms Carroll.
In a separate judgement, which he is also appealing, Trump was ordered to pay Ms Carroll $18.3m (£14.4m) in compensation and $65m (£51m) in punitive damages.
On Thursday, Trump denied revised charges relating to his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Next week Mr Trump will face Democrat nominee Kamala Harris in their first presidential TV debate in Philadelphia.
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The upcoming debates are seen as potentially pivotal. The race for the White House is tight after Democrat support surged following President Joe Biden’s decision to quit the contest in favour of Ms Harris in July.
Some polls have even put the Democrat ahead. She would become the first female president as well as the first woman of black and South Asian descent to hold the Oval Office if she won.