Judge Merchan denies Trump’s request to delay sentencing

New York Judge Juan Merchan he denied President-elect Donald Trump’s request to delay the ruling in the New York v. Trump case.

“Defendant’s motion to stay these proceedings, including the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, is DENIED,” Merchan wrote in his decision Monday.

Earlier Monday, Trump’s legal team filed a motion to delay sentencing in the case. Trump will be sentenced on Friday, January 10 at 9:30 a.m., 10 days before his inauguration as the 47th president of the United States on January 20.

“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the illegal sentence in the Manhattan DA’s witch hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on immunity, the New York state constitutionand another legal mandate in place for this meritless hoax to be dismissed immediately,” Trump spokesman and White House communications director Steven Cheung told Fox Digital on Monday morning.

TRUMP FILES MOTION TO FOLLOW ‘ILLEGAL JUDGMENT’ IN NEW YORK CASE

Republican presidential candidate and former US president Donald Trump sits in court as his criminal trial continues on charges he falsified business records to hide money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, in Manhattan State Court in New York City, USA, April 22, 2024. (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/Pool)

“The American people elected President Trump with an overwhelming mandate that demands an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and all remaining witch hunts. We look forward to uniting our country in the new administration , as President Trump makes America great again,” Cheung continued.

Merchan has already said he will not sentence the president-elect to prison, but instead hand down an “unconditional discharge” sentence, meaning no punishment would be imposed.

Trump was found guilty of 34 counts of forgery business records in the Manhattan case in May. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office worked to prove Trump falsified business records to hide a $130,000 payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election to shut down his claims about an alleged relationship with Trump in 2006.

Trump has maintained his innocence in the case and has repeatedly criticized it as an example of a law pushed by Democrats in an effort to hurt his election efforts before November.

“Almost always a legal scholar and expert says THERE IS NO (ZERO!) CASE AGAINST ME. The judge made up the facts and the law, no different than the other. New York Judicial and Prosecutorial Witch Hunts. That’s why companies are fleeing New York and taking millions of jobs and billions of dollars in taxes with them. The legal system is broken and companies cannot risk getting caught in these quicksands. EVERYTHING IS AMINATED, in this case against a political opponent, ME!!!,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday evening of the case.

Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.