Prosecutors accept Trump’s call to delay sentencing after immunity ruling

Prosecutors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial have agreed to his legal team’s demand to delay the sentencing after the immunity ruling by the Supreme Court.

The final decision now lies with Judge Juan Merchan, who oversaw the trial. He will consider the request from Trump’s legal team for the process to be paused.

The possible delay comes after the Supreme Court ruled that “official” actions taken as a president cannot be used as evidence in cases concerning “unofficial” actions.

Joshua Steinglass, one of the assistant district attorneys who tried the case against the former president, wrote: “Although we believe defendant’s arguments to be without merit, we do not oppose his request for leave to file and his putative request to adjourn sentencing pending determination of his motion.”

During the trial, in which Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, prosecutors used tweets from his presidential account to explain his relationship with Michael Cohen, the star prosecution witness.

He was convicted of covering up “hush money” payments to Ms Daniels, a porn star, in the run-up to his first presidential campaign in 2016, and was due to be sentenced on July 11.

Trump’s legal team now argues that the Supreme Court ruling undermines his conviction, and that the sentencing should be paused for the court to consider the ruling.

The New York district attorney’s office said that while it believed Trump’s request to be “without merit”, it would not oppose a delay. The former president’s lawyers said they would file papers making their case by July 10, and the prosecutors said they would respond two weeks later.

It could mean Trump will not be sentenced before the Republican National Convention, which begins on July 15.