Donald Trump's hush money sentencing called off after ex-President regains White House

Donald Trump was convicted on all 34 felony counts in May by a jury for paying off Stormy Daniels, but his punishment has been pushed back multiple times.

Donald Trump’s sentencing following his conviction for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels in an illegal hush money deal has been called off.

The president-elect was convicted on all 34 felony counts in May by a jury, but his punishment has been pushed back multiple times. Following his election victory, on Tuesday, Trump’s November 26 sentencing has been cancelled, and no new date has been set.

Before regaining the White House, he had argued that his conviction should be thrown out based on the Supreme Court's July 1 presidential immunity decision, which gave US leaders broad protections against prosecution. Five days after the election, Trump'ss lawyer Emil Bove emailed trial Judge Juan Merchan to argue that the case should also be dismissed based on the election to "avoid unconstitutional impediments to President Trump's ability to govern."

New York prosecutors said they'll oppose dismissing President-elect Donald Trump's hush money case as his sentencing looms, but they expressed some openness to delaying it until after his impending second term. In a court filing Tuesday, the Manhattan district attorney's office said his forthcoming presidency isn't grounds for dropping a case that was already tried.

But "given the need to balance competing constitutional interests," prosecutors said, consideration must be given "to potentially freezing the case until after he's out of office." The judge halted proceedings last week after Trump’s lawyers urged him to dismiss the case “to avoid unconstitutional impediments” to the incoming president’s ability to run the country.

Merchan has not said when he will decide. Trump is due to be sworn in January 20. In pausing proceedings, the judge delayed a ruling on Trump’s earlier bid to reverse his conviction because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that gave presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution. Merchan could also decide to delay the case for some other length of time, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option.

A dismissal would erase Trump’s historic conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record as well as a possible prison sentence. The president-elect was found guilty of falsifying business records in order to cover up a hush money payment to buy Daniels' silence ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The porn star alleged the pair had a sexual encounter, a claim Trump denies.

Prosecutors cast the payout as part of a Trump-driven effort to keep voters from hearing salacious stories about him. Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels. Trump later reimbursed him, and Trump’s company logged the reimbursements as legal expenses — concealing what they really were, prosecutors alleged.

Trump has pledged to appeal the verdict if the case is not dismissed. He and his lawyers said the payments to Cohen were properly categorised as legal expenses for legal work.