A New York judge on Friday pushed back sentencing for Donald Trump in the case of secret payments to a porn star until after the presidential election, according to a court document.
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The decision sounds like a huge victory for the former US president, who wants to return to the White House.
“This is not a decision that the Court takes lightly, but it is the decision that, in the eyes of the Court, best serves the interests of justice,” wrote Judge Juan Merchan, who has been hearing multiple appeals from Donald Trump’s defense and who had already postponed the sentencing hearing from July 11 to September 18.
The presidential election, which pits Democratic candidate Kamala Harris against Republican Donald Trump, will take place on November 5.
The former president’s lawyers had requested a new delay following a resounding decision by the US Supreme Court in Washington, with a conservative majority, which broadened the scope of presidential criminal immunity.
At the end of a historic trial, the first criminal trial for a former president of the United States, Donald Trump was found guilty at the end of May of 34 offenses of falsifying accounting documents, intended to hide, just before his victory in the 2016 presidential election, a payment of 130,000 dollars to a porn actress, Stormy Daniels.
The money was paid to her to keep quiet about a sexual relationship she said she had with him in 2006, which he has always denied.
Donald Trump is facing criminal charges in three other cases, but no further trials will take place before the presidential election.
Friday’s ruling means American voters will not experience the Republican candidate’s punishment when they go to the polls or vote by mail.
In the hidden payments case, Donald Trump theoretically faces a maximum sentence of a prison sentence, but many experts believe it is more likely that the judge will hand down an alternative sentence to prison, such as a suspended sentence.
