President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing hearing has been indefinitely “adjourned” as the court evaluates how to handle the case after Trump’s reelection to the White House.
A New York court said in a note posted to the case docket on Tuesday that the November 26 hearing had been adjourned without further explanation, according to Bloomberg. The note came on the same day as a deadline for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office to submit an argument on how the election and a Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity should impact the case.
The judge in the case, Justice Juan Merchan, has not signaled where he thinks the trial should go. Some of the options are dismissal of the case, or postponing sentencing for four years until Trump’s second term in the White House is complete, according to Fox News.
Trump’s legal team has argued that the case against the president-elect should be dismissed. Bragg’s team of prosecutors has said that some action should be taken after Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May.
“The People agree that these are unprecedented circumstances and that the arguments raised by defense counsel in correspondence to the People on Friday require careful consideration to ensure that any further steps in this proceeding appropriately balance the competing interests of (1) a jury verdict of guilt following trial that has the presumption of regularity; and (2) the Office of the President,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wrote to Merchan last week.
A New York jury convicted Trump on 34 felony counts in May related to hush money paid to Stephanie Clifford, a porn actress who goes by the name Stormy Daniels. Trump faces a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
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Throughout the trial, Trump complained of unfair treatment and bias by Merchan, whose daughter is a Democratic operative. Merchan issued gag orders against Trump over his complaints and accusations against the judge and others.
In May, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents are immune from prosecution over official acts or acts that are part of a president’s “core constitutional powers.” Outside of that scope, however, presidential immunity may not apply.
“The president enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the president does is official. The president is not above the law,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the decision. “But Congress may not criminalize the president’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution.”