Market Data 
By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The prosecutors who secured Donald Trump’s historic criminal conviction on felony charges in May on Monday did not explicitly oppose the former U.S. president’s bid to delay his sentencing until after the Nov. 5 election.
In a letter to Justice Juan Merchan, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office acknowledged that Trump had the right to appeal a forthcoming ruling on whether he was immune from prosecution, and said they deferred to Merchan on whether a delay to sentencing was warranted.
“We defer to the Court on whether an adjournment is warranted,” prosecutors wrote in the letter dated Aug. 16 and made public on Monday. “The People are prepared to appear for sentencing on any future date the Court sets.”
The Republican presidential candidate’s defense lawyers earlier this week asked Merchan to push back his scheduled Sept. 18 sentencing, citing “naked election-interference objectives.”
They also argued there was not enough time before the sentencing for the defense to potentially appeal Merchan’s ruling on Trump’s request to overturn the conviction due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on presidential immunity. The judge is set to rule on that motion on Sept. 16.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision, which related to a separate criminal case Trump faces, found that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for their official acts, and that evidence of presidents’ official actions cannot be used to help prove criminal cases involving unofficial actions.
Merchan delayed Trump’s sentencing, previously scheduled for July 11, to give him the chance to make his case that the decision meant the hush money verdict should be set aside.
Prosecutors say their case involved Trump’s personal conduct, not official acts.
But in their letter to Merchan, they said the prospect that Trump immediately appeals the judge’s decision on immunity may mean a potential Sept. 18 sentencing would be delayed anyway after “significant public safety and logistical steps” were already taken to prepare for Trump’s court appearance.
In a statement, Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said, “There should be no sentencing in this Election Interference Witch Hunt.”
In the first-ever criminal trial of a U.S. president, Trump was convicted on May 30 of falsifying business records to cover up his former lawyer’s $130,000 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denies the encounter and has vowed to appeal the verdict once he is sentenced.
If Trump wins the White House, he could potentially order the Department of Justice to drop federal election interference charges against him. He would not have the authority to end the New York state case or an election interference case in Georgia.
