A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump said he earned a "decisive win" Friday after a New York judge overseeing his business records fraud case ruled his attorneys could argue his conviction on 34 counts should be thrown out because he was elected again as president.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan gave Trump's attorneys until Dec. 2 to file a formal motion to dismiss the case involving a $130,000 payment former Trump attorney Michael Cohen made to porn star Stormy Daniels, telling prosecutors to reply by Dec. 9. His one-page order also canceled next week's sentencing hearing, and he did not schedule a new one or reference the possibility of a new date.
"In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed, and sentencing is adjourned," Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. "President Trump won a landslide victory as the American People have issued a mandate to return him to office and dispose of all remnants of the Witch Hunt cases. All of the sham lawfare attacks against President Trump are now destroyed and we are focused on Making America Great Again."
Trump's case regarding the handling of documents, some deemed classified, at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida was thrown out in July by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who ruled special counsel Jack Smith was unlawfully appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland because he is a private citizen and not subject to Senate confirmation.
Smith last week requested the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pause his appeal in that case because Trump was elected president, similar to him asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to pause the government's appeal in the case involving alleged attempts to subvert the 2020 election results, which Chutkan granted.
In Trump's remaining case in Fulton County, Georgia, a state appeals court in June indefinitely paused the case for Trump and some co-defendants until a panel of judges ruled on whether Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis should be disqualified after it was alleged she benefitted financially from a secret romantic relationship with her lead special prosecutor, Nathan Wade. The appeals court on Monday postponed indefinitely oral arguments for the judges' hearing scheduled for Dec. 5.