The decision follows a multipronged effort by Trump’s legal team to postpone his Sept. 18 sentencing, arguing that proceeding before then could unfairly affect his campaign ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election.

Merchan addressed Trump’s concern directly, noting the court “is a fair, impartial, and apolitical institution.”

“Adjourning decision on the motion and sentencing, if such is required, 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,” Merchan added.

Merchan is still mulling a separate request by Trump to throw out the jury’s guilty verdict in light of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision. The judge is slated to decide on Sept. 16 whether the Trump v. United States ruling should prompt him to toss the jury’s guilty verdict.

“Unfortunately, we are now at a place in time that is fraught with complexities rendering the
requirements of a sentencing hearing, should one be necessary, difficult to execute,” Merchan wrote in the four-page decision, emphasizing a shred of uncertainty about whether such a hearing will even take place.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office did not object to Trump’s request last month to delay the sentencing.

However, prosecutors had pushed back against one of Trump’s separate last-ditch efforts to delay the sentencing through an alternative workaround: asking federal courts to remove his case from state court. Trump’s attorneys argued the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision should require his case to be transferred to a federal judge.

Prosecutors argued in a letter to Merchan this week that there is now “no basis” for Trump’s bid to freeze the case in New York state court in lieu of his effort to move to federal court, which was already turned down earlier this week by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.

Trump is still seeking a reversal of Hellerstein’s rejection of that effort, and an appeal has been docketed at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

But the overall delay ordered by Merchan on Friday resolves the core issue Trump was attempting to address as the 2024 election grows closer.

In May, the former president was convicted on 34 felony charges related to hush money payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign, with prosecutors accusing him of falsifying business records to cover up the payments. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, calling the case a “political witch hunt.”

Trump, who appeared voluntarily in New York court on Friday as he appealed a separate civil ruling against him involving E. Jean Carroll’s first defamation case, continues to assert his innocence and has vowed to fight the charges as he prepares for a debate faceoff with Vice President Kamala Harris on Sept. 10.

Trump allies brewing their own fights over hush money case

Meanwhile, allies of Trump are making efforts to uncover any malfeasance by Merchan in his handling of the hush money case after Trump made three failed attempts to recuse him from the case over claims of a conflict of interest.

America First Legal, a group headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller, sued Merchan on Thursday for refusing to turn over his financial disclosures amid questions over his daughter Loren Merchan’s work at a Democratic firm.

“This is especially important given the fact that Merchan appears to have engaged in unlawful campaign contributions and is on the precipice of criminally sentencing the former president of the United States,” AFL attorney Dan Epstein said in a statement. “Fundamental fairness dictates a resolution of America First Legal’s suit in its favor.” 

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a close confidant to the former president, also announced Friday she filed an ethics complaint with the New York State Commission in light of Harris’s recent Federal Election Commission filing showing she “hired and paid Acting Justice Juan Merchan’s adult daughter’s company,” according to a post on X.

On Aug. 28, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) subpoenaed Loren Merchan’s firm, Authentic Campaigns, after it failed to comply with requests for records related to the committee’s investigation over whether the judge is compromised due to the firm’s past work for Trump’s opponents, including Harris.

Authentic Campaigns CEO Michael Nellis pushed back on those allegations after Jordan’s subpoena, saying the claims by Trump and other allies were “completely false and purely politically motivated.”