'The Case Should Be Dead': Trump Responds To Judge Merchan's Decision To Postpone Sentencing Until After Election

On Friday, 45th President Donald Trump reacted to New York Judge Juan Merchan's decision to postpone the September 18 sentencing hearing until after the November election. The ruling is a major blow to the Democrats' lawfare campaign against the former president and indicates that Trump will not see the inside of a courtroom for the remainder of the presidential campaign.

In his ruling, Judge Merchan rescheduled the sentencing hearing for November 26 after Trump's lawyers argued that the sentencing hearing should occur after Election Day on November 5. "By adjourning the sentencing until after that election - which is of paramount importance to the entire nation, the court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings," Trump's lawyers argued.

"The case was delayed because everyone realizes there was no case and I did nothing wrong," Trump said. "It is a case that should never have been brought." Trump explained to Fox News that "the public understands that, and so does every legal scholar that has looked at it and studied it." 

"I greatly respect the words' if necessary' being used in this decision because there should be no, 'if necessary,'" Trump said. "The case should be dead." In a statement to Fox, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung explained, "There should be no sentencing in the Manhattan DA's Election Interference Witch Hunt. As mandated by the United States Supreme Court, this case, along with all of the other Harris-Biden Hoaxes, should be dismissed."

The decision to delay the trial was reached after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) deferred to the judge on whether the sentencing hearing would be postponed. The judge's decision will likely spark outrage among those in the Democratic Party who hoped to use the sentencing hearing as a cudgel against Trump in the last two months of the presidential campaign.

Judge Merchan explained in his ruling that the "public's confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion." 

"Unfortunately, we are now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities rendering the requirements of a sentencing hearing, should one be necessary, difficult to execute," Merchan wrote in his ruling. "Thus, in accordance with certain of the grounds submitted by Defendant and the reasons for adjournment provided by the People coupled with the unique time frame this matter currently finds itself in, the decision on the [motion] and 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."

As previously reported by the DC Enquirer, earlier this year, a Manhattan jury found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records as he attempted to cover up a 2005 affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential election with the help of then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

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