BREAKING: Merchan Adjourns Alvin Bragg’s Trump Case Without Sentencing

Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan abruptly halted proceedings in President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money sentencing on Tuesday, marking the second time that he has sought to delay imposing a punishment that is now effectively unenforceable.

The decision gives Merchan additional time to weigh a sentence in response to Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts, Fox News reports, and comes the same day that District Attorney Alvin Bragg was expected to provide his own recommendations on how to proceed. It has been one week since Merchan self-imposed a deadline of November 12th to decide whether or not to toss the case in light of the Supreme Court’s summer ruling granting presidents sweeping immunity for official acts, a category that Trump attorneys say applies here. Sources at the time reported Merchan extended that deadline to November 26th and was giving “serious consideration” to jettisoning the case entirely.

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That latter date is now off the calendar as the court weighs how to proceed in light of the president-elect’s victory. The next step is unclear: Merchan could sentence Trump and wait to see if his decision is overturned when his attorneys argue it would interfere with the Republican’s ability to run the country. The judge could dismiss the trial entirely, or he could move to delay sentencing until after Trump leaves the White House. As a last resort, Merchan could grant a sentence of unconditional discharge, leaving the guilty verdict intact while absolving Trump of any practical punishment.

BREAKING: Judge Juan Merchan adjourns NYC case against Trump without delivering sentence in ‘hush money’ case:

"Even if Trump’s convictions were to be upheld, the president-elect has myriad ways to appeal the case or get the charges against him dismissed … making it all but…

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 19, 2024

Prosecutors within Bragg’s office have already acknowledged the difficulty of trying a case going forward. “The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances,” Matthew Colangelo wrote for Bragg’s office last week in a request to delay the sentencing. Their agreement with Trump’s defense team mirrors one reached with the office of special counsel Jack Smith who earlier this month requested a delay in Trump’s federal election interference trial. The defendant, Smith wrote in a filing on November 8th, “is expected to be certified as president-elect on Jan. 6, 2025, and inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.” Meanwhile, “the government respectfully requests that the court vacate the remaining deadlines in the pretrial schedule to afford the government time to assess this unprecedented circumstance and determine the appropriate course going forward consistent with Department of Justice policy.” A similar admission was made in Trump’s Florida case as prosecutors are appealing a decision by a district judge to dismiss the case on the grounds of Smith’s unconstitutional appointment.

Vowing to go after his “lawfare” enemies, Trump has threatened not only to fire Smith “within two seconds” but also teased the idea of deporting him. Bragg, a Democrat in reliably blue New York, may not be as easily prosecutable. However, his office receives federal funding which could be stripped away by Congress, something that House Republicans have eagerly done to the office of Fani Willis, the Democratic district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia who continues to try Trump on state-level election interference charges.

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