Trump’s sentencing is delayed indefinitely

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge confirmed this Friday President-elect Donald Trump will not be sentenced this month in his hush money caseinstead setting an agenda for prosecutors and his attorneys to expand on ideas about what to do next.

In the middle of a wave of files in the case since Trump’s election victory this month, it had already become clear that the November 26 sentencing date would not stand. Judge Juan M. Merchan’s order on Friday formalized that without establishing a new one.

He asked for more filings from both sides over the next two and a half weeks on how to proceed in light of Trump’s imminent return to the White House.

Trump’s lawyers I want the case dismissed directly, and immediately. They said it would otherwise interfere with the transition and his presidential duties.

Prosecutors indicated they were opened to put the case on holdmaybe as long as it’s in office, but they don’t want it scrapped altogether. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, said the solution must balance the presidency’s obligations with “the sanctity of the jury’s verdict.”

Bragg’s office declined to comment on Friday’s decision. Trump spokesman and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung hailed it as “a decisive victory” for Trump.

Trump, a Republican, was convicted in May of falsifying his business records to disguise the true nature of a payment ring that provided $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels. She received it, through Trump’s then-lawyer, in the final days of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The payment was intended to keep her quiet about a sexual encounter she says she had with the married Trump a decade earlier. He denies her claim and says he did nothing wrong.