Donald Trump’s sentencing for hush-money case delayed by Judge Juan Merchan

This is despite Harris’ campaign announcing a record funding haul of $US361 million last month – nearly tripling the $US130 million brought in by the former president over the same period, and Harris receiving another high-profile Republican endorsement in former vice president Dick Cheney, who served in George W. Bush’s administration.

Cheney was one of the most influential and Hawkish conservatives of his era and has long been loathed by Democrats.

But at an event in Texas, his daughter Liz Cheney, the Congresswoman who led the January 6 congressional hearings against Trump and also revealed this week that she would support Harris, told the crowd: “My dad believes – and he said publicly – that there’s never been an individual in our country who is as grave a threat to our democracy as Donald Trump is, and that’s, that’s the moment that we’re facing.”

Trump’s so-called hush money trial lasted six weeks, involved 22 witnesses and became one of the hottest tickets in town, with people lining up for hours – and sometimes even paying professional line sitters – to get one of the few seats inside the Manhattan criminal court.

At its conclusion a jury found Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to “catch and kill” damning stories that could have derailed his chances of becoming president.

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With the help of National Enquirer tabloid king David Pecker and his Australian content chief Dylan Howard, numerous stories were buried on Trump’s behalf, including that of an affair with former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, which Pecker’s company paid $US150,000 to kill, and an unverified story from a hotel doorman about a love child, which cost $US30,000.

However, the 34 charges for which Trump was found guilty by a jury specifically relate to a $US130,000 hush money payment his fixer, Michael Cohen, made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who says she had sex with Trump in 2006 when he was newly married to his current wife, Melania.

This crossed a legal line, prosecutors say, because Trump reimbursed Cohen and falsified records to cover the whole thing up, thereby breaching electoral laws.

Trump, who has consistently said he is innocent, was initially due to be sentenced on July 11. However, this was delayed to September after the US Supreme Court’s explosive decision to grant former presidents broad immunity from prosecution for acts conducted in office.

The Supreme Court’s immunity decision sent shockwaves across Democratic ranks, with President Joe Biden warning that it would allow Trump to act like a king if re-elected in November.

Trump’s lawyers had used the ruling to push for a delay, and had also argued that sentencing him in the heat of an election campaign would amount to political interference. Prosecutors did not oppose the delay, saying they would defer to Merchan’s decision.

“This is not a decision this Court makes lightly but it is the decision which, in this Court’s view, best advances the interests of justice,” Merchan wrote.

Trump’s legal victory came hours after he appeared in another judge’s Manhattan courtroom on Friday, as his lawyers fought to overturn a $US5 million verdict finding the former president liable for sexual abuse and defamation writer E. Jean Carroll.

During a 45-minute press conference at Trump Tower afterwards, the 78-year-old presidential hopeful then suggested once again that Carroll was a liar and called her case against him “Monica Lewinsky Part II”, a reference to the White House intern Bill Clinton had sex with as he referenced the infamous dress that played a pivotal role in the impeachment against the then Democrat president.

Trump also brought up a string of past allegations of other acts of sexual misconduct, potentially reminding voters of incidents that were little-known or forgotten, and implied he would not have assaulted some of his accusers due to their looks.

“I never touched her. I would have had no interest in meeting her in any way, shape or form,” he said.