The judge is delaying Trump’s sentencing to decide where the case should go

A judge has confirmed that President-elect Donald Trump will not be sentenced this month in his hush money case, instead setting a schedule for prosecutors and his lawyers to flesh out ideas about what to do next.

Amid a flurry of filings in the case since Trump’s election win this month, it had already become clear that the Nov. 26 sentencing date would not be held.

Judge Juan M Merchan’s order on Friday made that official without setting a new one.

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

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

Prosecutors have indicated they’re willing to drop the case, perhaps as long as he’s in office, but don’t want it dismissed entirely.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, said the solution must balance the presidency’s obligations with “the sanctity of the jury’s verdict.”

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

Mr. Trump, a Republican, was convicted in May of falsifying his business records to conceal 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 Mr Trump a decade earlier.

He denies her claim and says he did nothing wrong.

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