Prosecutors argue there’s no reason to delay sentencing in Trump’s hush money case

(NEW YORK) — There is no reason to delay the sentencing in Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case as the former president tries to move the case from state court into federal court, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said Tuesday in a letter to the judge overseeing the case.

Trump last week made his second request to push the case into federal court, after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

Sentencing in the case is currently scheduled for Sept. 18. The former president has also asked the judge overseeing the case, Juan Merchan, to postpone the sentencing until after the November election.

The district attorney’s office declined to take a position on when Trump’s sentencing should occur, leaving it to the discretion of the judge.

However, in their letter Tuesday to Judge Merchan, prosecutors Matthew Colangelo and Christopher Conroy argued that both of Trump’s requests can be handled simultaneously.

“We note that the concerns defendant expresses about timing are a function of his own strategic and dilatory litigation tactics: This second notice of removal comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal from his first, unsuccessful effort to remove this case; three months after he was found guilty by a jury on thirty-four felony counts; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial,” Tuesday’s letter said.

Trump has said he will appeal his conviction.

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