US prosecutors say not opposed to delaying Trump sentencing
July 2, 2024
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has indicated that he is not opposed to delaying the sentencing date in the criminal hush-money case against former US President Donald Trump.
In a letter filed Tuesday, prosecutors in Bragg's office said they would be open to delaying the July 11 sentencing for up to two weeks.
"Although we believe defendant's arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request" to delay the sentencing pending determination of the motion, the prosecutors wrote.
The letter came a day after Trump's lawyers asked the judge to delay the decision, as he weighs the high court's decision and how it might affect the New York case.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the president has immunity from lawsuits for "official" acts committed while in office but not "private" ones. It left the definitions of official and private acts by a president for a lower court to consider first.
What is the hush money case about?
Trump was accused of falsifying business records in a scheme to cover up an alleged sexual encounter with adult film actress Stormy Daniels to protect his 2016 campaign from a last-minute upset.
The charges center on $130,000 (€122,000) in payments that Trump's company made to his then-lawyer, Michael Cohen. He had paid that sum on Trump's behalf to keep an actress from going public with her claims of a sexual encounter with the married mogul a decade earlier.
Prosecutors say the payments to Cohen were falsely recorded as legal fees to hide their true purpose. Trump's lawyers say the payments were in fact legal expenses, not a cover-up.
Trump faced a total of 34 felony charges of falsifying business records to hide a payment meant to silence Stormy Daniels. He denied all wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty. However, he has been found guilty on all 34 charges.
Giuliani loses New York law license
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and legal adviser to Donald Trump, has lost his New York law license after a state appeals court found that he lied when he argued that the 2020 presidential election would be stolen from his client.
The court found that Giuliani "baselessly attacked and undermined the integrity of this country’s electoral process" and "actively contributed to the national strife that has followed the 2020 presidential election, for which he is entirely unrepentant."
Giuliani was one of the leading proponents of the false claim that widespread voter fraud caused Trump to lose to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
dh/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)