Trump Asks for ANOTHER Delay

This time, he wants the sentencing for his 34 felony convictions postponed until after the election - and the reasons are nothing short of hilarious.

Donald just submitted a letter to Judge Merchan asking him to delay his September 18th sentencing until after the election. Let’s go through this line by line, shall we?

Notwithstanding the Court's ruling on the disputed recusal issue, the requested adjournment would prospectively mitigate the asserted conflicts and appearances of impropriety, which are also the subject of an ongoing congressional inquiry. In yesterday's ruling, the Court did not address the significance of the 2019 conversations with Your Honor's daughter criticizing President Trump's use of Twitter, with the new fact being that existing Tweets from President Trump at the time of that conversation are squarely at issue in the pending Presidential immunity motion. Moreover, since the most recent recusal motion, as Kamala Harris did previously, Tim Walz wrongly referred to this case in a public speech as the Democrat Party's nominee for Vice President.

1. The recusal issue is not disputed - unless he means that he just doesn’t like the ruling. Trump filed three motions for recusal and all three were soundly denied, including through review by a judicial ethics board that found recusal was not necessary.

2. There are no appearances of impropriety. Here, Donald is referring to the fact that he believes the prosecution and conviction on 34 felony counts is some deep state, Biden-led election interference plot. The fact of the matter is that Trump and Barr delayed this case. Then Trump’s mishandling of COVID delayed the statute of limitations. So any and all delay that pushed this case to an election year is solely Donald’s doing.

3. “Which are also subject to a congressional inquiry” is laughable, since Donald himself directed republicans in congress to investigate the investigators. Besides, ongoing congressional inquiries are no basis to continue sentencing in a state-level criminal case. I thought republicans were all about “leaving it up to the states.” But you’ll notice that Project 2025 wants to eliminate state level investigations into republicans. Anyhow, just because your pals in congress are “investigating” something, doesn’t make it relevant - or even an actual issue.

4. He’s still on Judge Merchan’s daughter, claiming that her critique of Trump’s Twitter usage is grounds for recusal because Trump is claiming his tweets are immune evidence. This is an incredible stretch. It would be like saying “You can’t use my fingerprints as evidence because one time, the judge’s brother had his fingerprints taken, so since there’s FINGERPRINTS, you have to delay my sentencing.” Merchan’s daughter criticized Trump’s use of Twitter in general - not specific tweets - and certainly not the tweets at issue. And even if she did, there’s still zero pecuniary benefit the judge would realize by sentencing trump in September vs December.

5. Donald says he should get delayed sentencing because Harris and Walz have referred to the fact that Trump is a convicted felon. I have absolutely zero idea what one has to do with the other, especially coming from a guy blasting out Truth Social posts complaining that *he* should be able to violate the gag order because FREE SPEECH AND I’M RUNNING FOR OFFICE

Let’s move on to the next section.

In the same timeframe, Michael Nellis, a business partner of Your Honor's daughter at Authentic Campaigns (and Authentic's founder), posted on social media about, inter alia, making maximum donations to the Harris campaign and using his clout with that campaign to get Walz to "talk on our White Dudes for Harris call last week." Sentencing is currently scheduled to occur after the commencement of early voting in the Presidential election. By adjourning the sentencing until after that election which is of paramount importance to the entire Nation, including tens of millions of people who do not share the views of Authentic, its executives, and its clients the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings.

6. Michael Nellis and his work with Authentic have nothing to do with Judge Merchan - who the court has already ruled (THREE TIMES) does not have a conflict of interest based on his daughter’s work with Authentic. Jim Jordan opened an “investigation” into Authentic just TWO WEEKS AGO. Donald’s third recusal motion was denied AFTER that. This is equivalent to me saying that you can’t sentence me for crimes I’ve been found guilty of because my cats are investigating your investigation. There was a TRIAL. Any and all of your “evidence” was resolved in pre-trial motions and in court.

7. If sentencing happens after early voting starts, that means a bunch of folks will get to vote without the benefit of knowing his sentence - but you don’t hear them complaining.

The requested adjournment would prevent DANY from filing a sentencing submission while the Court is still considering the Presidential immunity motion. In an August 5, 2024 letter, Your Honor indicated that the Court will issue a decision on the immunity motion on September 16, 2024, that the existing September 18 sentencing date "remains unchanged," and that the parties should "keep these dates in mind" for purposes of sentencing submissions. However, in a July 2, 2024 letter, the Court acknowledged that the sentencing may not be "necessary" in light of Trump.

8. All judges say “if necessary”, because it would be wrong to say “Go ahead and file your briefs but I’m gonna rule against you anyhow.” lol

We have explained in our immunity briefing why no sentencing should occur, and why the case should be dismissed. While that is a pending question before the Court, DANY should not be permitted to file a public sentencing submission that will include what the Supreme Court described as the "threat of punishment," in a manner that is personally and politically prejudicial to President Trump and his family, and harmful to the institution of the Presidency as a result of the type of "peculiar public opprobrium" associated with these proceedings that troubled the Trump Court.

9. “You can’t sentence me because I told you why I don’t like any of this” is not persuasive. And yes, being a convicted felon may very well be “politically prejudicial” to a candidate for office. So as the wise Jim Carrey once said in Liar Liar - STOP BREAKING THE LAW, ASSHOLE. If you don’t want your crimes to impact people’s opinion of you, then don’t commit crimes.

In contrast to all of this, on August 8, 2024, the Special Counsel's Office notified the federal trial judge in the District of Columbia that they are "continu[ing] to assess" Trump, "including through consultation with other [DOJ] components," and had not even "finalized [a] position on the most appropriate schedule for the parties to brief issues" relating to Presidential immunity. In that case, the schedule for litigating Presidential immunity will not even be determined until at least a September 5, 2024 status conference. That timing illustrates just how unreasonable it is to have the potential for only a single day between a decision on first-impression Presidential immunity issues and an unprecedented and unwarranted sentencing.

10. OK this is probably one of the dumbest arguments I’ve heard from the Trump team - and that’s saying a LOT. He’s saying that since Jack Smith needs until September 5th to develop a schedule for litigating immunity in the DC case, that they should have more time to litigate immunity in the Manhattan case.

    1. First, the only thing being argued in the Manhattan case is immunity over a few tweets and a couple instances of testimony. In DC, the court has to determine which acts in the four count indictment are immune, along with which evidence has to be kept out. Immunity in the DC case is FAR MORE COMPLEX.

    2. Second, the trial in Manhattan is over, so his “interlocutory” arguments that immunity must be decided before trial are stupid. I’m not sure why Trump has so much difficulty with the concept of linear time, but he does.

    3. Third, both parties have briefed the immunity in this case already, so no more time is needed. It appears trump wants more time between the ruling and the sentencing (currently one day), which makes no sense. More time between the ruling on immunity and sentencing won’t solve any of Donald’s complaints. He’s just complaining for political purposes at this point because he needs you to know he’s the victim when he’s actually the criminal.

Finally, setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush. Accordingly, we respectfully request that any sentencing, if one is needed, be adjourned until after the Presidential election.

11. The court has ruled several times that there’s no election interference here

12. There are several countervailing reasons to keep the sentencing date on the calendar, including the public’s right to some damn justice.

13. This isn’t being “rushed”. If anything, this would have been over years ago if Donald hadn’t delayed it, and had he not been given every single benefit of the doubt in the universe that no other criminal defendants are afforded.

I don’t believe the Judge will grant this motion, though I do think he’ll be able to postpone his sentence - if any - until the appeal is resolved. But not until after he’s sentenced on September 18th (provided the judge rules in the DA’s favor on immunity; a ruling due September 16th.)

Thanks for reading!

~AG