The New York judge presiding over the case in which Donald Trump was convicted of concealing payments for the silence of porn actress Stormy Daniels has decided to withhold further decisions in the case. This is intended to give lawyers more time to analyze the consequences of Trump winning the presidential election.
Case investigator Donald Trump Judge Juan Merchan on Tuesday granted prosecutors' request to suspend the case's schedule to “consider recent developments” in connection with the electoral victory of the Republican candidate. The judge gave the prosecutor's office and lawyers until November 19 to submit proposals on how to proceed.
Stormy DanielsNordin Catic/Getty Images
The court found Donald Trump guilty
According to a previously agreed schedule, Merchan was scheduled to make a decision on Trump's motion to dismiss on Tuesday the May verdict finding him guilty of 34 crimes related to concealing payment for silence (about alleged sexual contacts) of porn actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign. Trump's lawyers cited the Supreme Court's ruling granting the presidents immunity.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office said it agreed with the defense's request to pause the proceedings to consider how to approach the case since Trump won the presidential election.
The hearing during which the judge was to decide on Trump's sentence was scheduled for November 26, but if it takes place, the decision will probably be postponed to a later date. The president-elect faced prison time, although most experts expected a lighter sentence.
The story of Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump's relationship
The case of Trump's affair with a porn actress nicknamed Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, gained publicity in 2018. Then, in March, Daniels confirmed in an interview with CBS that a few days before the presidential election, Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid her $130,000 in exchange for silence about the sexual relationship they had.
In a 2018 interview with CBS, Stormy Daniels reported that she met Trump at a charity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada in July 2006. She claimed that Trump, then 60, invited her to dinner and then they went to his hotel room, where they had sex. Trump's wife, Melania, was not supposed to be there because she had given birth to the couple's son shortly before. Later, Trump allegedly invited Daniels, then 27, to an event in California and to his office in Trump Tower in New York. In 2007, Trump allegedly met with Daniels at his Beverly Hills home and talked to her about her participation in the reality show “Celebrity Apprentice,” which he hosted at the time. The woman ultimately did not appear in the program.
In 2011, Daniels gave an interview to In Touch magazine, in which she described her meetings with Trump. However, the conversation did not see the light of day because – as the newspaper's employees told CBS News – after Trump was asked to comment on the case, his lawyer threatened to sue the magazine. Daniels claims that a few weeks after her interview with In Touch, she was intimidated – a stranger approached her and her daughter and told them to “leave Trump alone” and “forget about this story.”
Main photo source: AP Photo/Evan Vucci/EastNews