New York judge agrees to hear Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss criminal case

Judge Juan Merchan says in his order that president-elect will not be sentenced on November 26, as previously scheduled

Donald Trump looks on during a press conference at Trump Tower in New York in September. Reuters

The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump’s hush-money case said on Friday he will consider the US president-elect’s latest arguments on why it should be dismissed.

Judge Juan Merchan also said in his order that Mr Trump would not be sentenced on November 26, as previously scheduled. Instead, Mr Merchan said he would consider motions from Mr Trump’s lawyers and prosecutors before proceeding. He did not set a new sentencing date and did not indicate when he would rule on the motion to dismiss.

Prosecutors working for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said this week that they will fight any attempt to dismiss the case, but indicated they are open to delaying any proceedings while Mr Trump is in the White House.

Mr Trump faces as many as four years in prison after the jury in May found him guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

The case focused on payments to an adult film star before the 2016 election. His lawyers have argued that pursuing the case would be “uniquely destabilising to the country” and interfere with his duties as president-elect and the presidency.

The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment Mr Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen made to Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Mr Trump. The president-elect denies the affair took place.

It was the first time a US president – former or sitting – had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offence.

Mr Trump pleaded not guilty in the case, which he has sought to portray as a politically motivated attempt by Mr Bragg, a Democrat, to interfere with his presidential campaign.

“In a decisive win for President Trump, the hoax Manhattan Case is now fully stayed and sentencing is adjourned,” Mr Trump's 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.”