US judge pauses proceedings in Trump hush money case
· RTE.ieA New York state judge has paused proceedings in US President-elect Donald Trump's already-decided criminal case on charges stemming from hush money paid to an adult film actress, a document made public has shown.
Judge Juan Merchan had been set to decide by today whether Mr Trump's conviction could be vacated due to the Supreme Court's July decision on presidential immunity.
Donald Trump had also been scheduled to be sentenced on 26 November.
Mr Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in May after a jury found he had fraudulently manipulated business records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office sent Judge Merchan an email on Sunday asking him to pause the proceedings due to Mr Trump's election victory and inauguration in January 2025.
Mr Trump had asked the office to agree to the delay, prosecutors wrote.
"The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances," prosecutors wrote.
Judge Merchan paused all proceedings in the case through 19 November.
Ahead of the election, Mr Trump's lawyers moved to have the case thrown out in light of the Supreme Court decision, a move which prosecutors have firmly rejected.
If Judge Merchan throws out the case on that basis, there will be no sentencing of Mr Trump.
If he does not, Mr Trump's legal team would almost certainly seek to oppose or delay any sentencing, insisting it would interfere with his role as commander-in-chief once he is sworn in on 20 January.
An editorial in the Kansas City Star newspaper called for the judge in the case to "do what was once unthinkable - force a president-elect to take the oath of office in a jail cell."
"The surreal scene, while certainly shocking for the rest of the free world to witness, would send an unmistakable message - the rule of law still applies in America."
But Mr Trump's former attorney general Bill Barr said that both the New York case as well as others around the country had been "plainly brought for political purposes (and) have now been extensively aired and rejected in the court of public opinion."
"Further manoeuvring on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand," he wrote.
Mr Trump has repeatedly derided the case as a witch hunt, saying it "should be rightfully terminated."
Alongside the New York case, brought by state-level prosecutors, Mr Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election and the other connected to classified documents he allegedly mishandled after leaving office.
However, as president he would be able to intervene to end those cases, and Jack Smith, the special counsel handling both cases, reportedly has begun to wind them down.
A Trump-appointed federal judge already threw out the documents case, but Mr Smith had sought to appeal that decision.
"Trump's victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for any of his alleged criminal misconduct," said former prosecutor Randall Eliason in an article on Substack.
"That's a severe blow to the ideal of the rule of law."
The New York conviction, coming just months before the election which Mr Trump won convincingly, was one of several dramatic upsets in the unprecedented race.
In July, Mr Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania when a bullet grazed his ear.
Later that month, President Joe Biden stepped aside as the Democratic Party's candidate following a disastrous performance against Mr Trump in a televised debate.