Donald Trump wants to dismiss his New York hush money case following his political victory and impending return to the White House. In a letter to Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday, Manhattan prosecutors said they intend to oppose Trump’s forthcoming dismissal motion, but they agreed to a pause of further proceedings while that motion is litigated.
What happens next and when Trump could face sentencing are up to Merchan, but prosecutors aren’t willing to drop the case simply because Trump won the election. They also suggested the possibility of further proceedings after Trump leaves office again.
“Given the need to balance competing constitutional interests, consideration must be given to various non-dismissal options that may address any concerns raised by the pendency of a post-trial criminal proceeding during the presidency, such as deferral of all remaining criminal proceedings until after the end of Defendant’s upcoming presidential term,” prosecutors wrote to the judge.
Let’s recap recent events in this case to understand where we’re at: After a jury convicted Trump in May of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Trump was scheduled to be sentenced on July 11. Before that could happen, the Supreme Court’s Republican-appointed majority issued the immunity ruling on July 1. Trump’s lawyers cited that ruling to argue that the New York verdicts should be overturned and the indictment dismissed, contending that evidence introduced at trial and in the grand jury ran afoul of the high court ruling.
Merchan delayed the sentencing until September and then, because of the election, to Nov. 26. The judge was supposed to rule last week on whether he would overturn the verdicts, but after Trump won the election, his lawyers asked to pause the proceedings. Prosecutors agreed to a postponement, which Merchan allowed, giving state prosecutors until Tuesday to explain their position on how they want to proceed. Now we have that position.
In their letter to Merchan, prosecutors noted that Trump wants to dismiss the prosecution and pause any other proceedings in the meantime. Prosecutors told Merchan that he should set a schedule for litigating Trump’s dismissal motion, which they intend to oppose, and that if Merchan lets Trump file such a motion, they asked for a deadline of Dec. 9 to provide their response to it. Prosecutors also said that further proceedings should be adjourned to allow the litigation of Trump’s motion. The New York case is one of four criminal prosecutions the president-elect faced after his first term in office. The two federal cases are headed for dismissal due to Trump’s presidential victory. The other is the state election interference case in Georgia, which has been tied up on a pretrial appeal. While Trump’s election doesn’t give him the power to dismiss his state cases or to pardon himself in them, those cases aren’t likely to proceed against him while he’s in office. He pleaded not guilty in all four cases. Subscribe to the Deadline: Legal Newsletter for expert analysis on the top legal stories of the week, including updates from the Supreme Court and developments in Donald Trump’s legal cases.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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