CNN — Donald Trump will not be sentenced on his business fraud conviction until September,
a New York judge ruled Tuesday in the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity.
Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Judge Juan Merchan said the former president will now be sentenced on September 18, “if such is still necessary.”
Trump’s legal team filed a letter Monday seeking to challenge the former president’s conviction after the Supreme Court ruled
that presidents have an absolute immunity from prosecution for core official acts.
Will Scharf, an attorney who represents Trump in the immunity case, told CNN Monday night the high court’s ruling “absolutely” impacts the hush money case.
In their letter Monday, Trump’s attorneys pointed to evidence elicited during the trial from Trump’s time in office, including testimony from former Hope Hicks, who served as communications director in the White House; tweets that Trump sent while in office; and phone records involving Trump while he was president.
“Under
Trump, this official-acts evidence should never have been put before the jury. Consistent with arguments that we made before and during the trial, the Supreme Court held in
Trump that President Trump ‘may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts,’” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
“The verdicts in this case violate the presidential immunity doctrine and create grave risks of ‘an Executive Branch that cannibalizes itself,’” they added.
