ANDREW McCARTHY: Anti-Trump judge stumbles into the right decision in delaying sentencing
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In postponing former President Donald Trump’s sentencing until after the 2024 election, Judge Juan Merchan did the right thing for the wrong reasons. This is apparent from his setting of a sentencing day on Nov. 26, even though – according to the four-page letter to counsel he made public today – Merchan is delaying his ruling on Trump’s immunity claim until Nov. 12.
To my mind, Trump is correct that proceeding with the scheduled Sept. 18 sentencing would have been gratuitous interference in the 2024 election. There was no rule-of-law reason why Trump, a major-party nominee, needed to be sentenced in the stretch run of the presidential campaign. And note that, until today’s postponement, Judge Merchan seemed insistent on sentencing Trump just as early voting begins (on September 16) in Pennsylvania, the most pivotal of the battleground states.
JUDGE MERCHAN DELAYS TRUMP SENTENCING UNTIL AFTER ELECTION
While Trump has been found guilty of 34 felony charges, the business-records offense is a non-violent crime that is normally a misdemeanor in New York (and normally not charged at all by Manhattan’s paragon progressive prosecutor, Alvin Bragg). And while 34 counts sounds impressive, the number is high only because
