New York:
The judge in Donald Trump's criminal case in New York has postponed a decision on whether to overturn the US president's conviction until November 19, the court said on Tuesday.
Trump was convicted of 34 crimes in May after a jury found he fraudulently manipulated company records to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump, who will be sentenced on November 26, may receive a reprieve if Judge Juan Merchan decides to dismiss the case following the Supreme Court's recent ruling on presidential immunity.
In this landmark ruling, the court, by a 6-3 conservative majority, decided that presidents have sweeping immunity from prosecution for a range of official acts committed while in office.
Before the election, Trump's lawyers moved to have the case dismissed in light of the Supreme Court's decision, a move that prosecutors firmly rejected.
If Merchan dismisses the case on that basis, there will be no conviction for the 78-year-old Trump.
If he doesn't, Trump's legal team will almost certainly try to resist or delay a conviction, insisting it would disrupt Trump's role as commander in chief once he is sworn in on January 20.
“The joint request for postponement of the current deadlines… until November 19 is granted,” the court wrote in an email to parties in the case, seen by AFP.
'A heavy blow'
An editorial in the Kansas City Star newspaper called on 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 Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr, said both the New York case and others around the country were “clearly brought for political purposes (and) have now been extensively aired and dismissed in the court of public opinion.” .
“Further maneuvering in these cases in the coming weeks would serve no legitimate purpose and would only distract the country and the new government from the task at hand,” he wrote.
Trump has repeatedly derided the case as a witch hunt and said it “must be lawfully ended.”
In addition to the New York case brought by state-level prosecutors, Trump faces two active federal cases, one related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and the other related to classified documents he allegedly mishandled him after he left office.
However, as president he could intervene to end these cases, and Jack Smith, the special prosecutor handling both cases, has reportedly begun to close them.
A federal judge appointed by Trump has already dismissed the documents case, but Smith had tried to appeal that decision.
“Trump's victory means he is unlikely to be held accountable for his alleged criminal misconduct,” former prosecutor Randall Eliason said in an article on Substack.
“That is a serious blow to the ideal of the rule of law.”
The conviction in New York, just months before the election that Trump won convincingly, was one of the dramatic developments in the race for the White House.
In July, 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 nominee after a disastrous performance against Trump in a televised debate.
That paved the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to become the first woman of color from a major American party to run for president.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
