Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over the Donald Trump hush money case in the spring, has moved Trump’s sentencing from September 18 to November 26. That date is after the November 7 election date.A Manhattan jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursing his attorney for a nondisclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels, reports the Daily Caller. Trump faces up four years in prison but legal experts say he’s more likely to get probation or community service. Any sentence would have also likely been paused pending Trump’s appeal, experts say, reports the New York Post. .In announcing the decision, Merchan wrote the November 26 sentencing date would be used “if necessary” adding the court is a “fair, impartial and apolitical institution,” saying his order “should dispel any suggestion that the Court will have issued any decision or imposed sentence either to give an advantage to, or to create a disadvantage for, any political party and/or any candidate for any office.” “This matter is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history, and this Court has presided over it since its inception, from arraignment to jury verdict and a plenitude of motions and other matters in-between,” Merchan wrote. “Were this Court to decide, after careful consideration of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump, that this case should proceed, it will be faced with one of the most critical and difficult decisions a trial court judge faces, the sentencing of a defendant found guilty of crimes by a unanimous jury of his peers.” In August, Trump’s attorneys asked Merchan to postpone sentencing to allow Trump to “pursue state and federal appellate options,” if Merchan decides not to toss the jury’s verdict based on the Supreme Court’s July ruling on presidential immunity. “Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in August. Trump initially was set to be sentenced on July 11, but Merchan postponed the date after the Supreme Court’s ruling. Trump has yet to officially respond to Merchan's decision
