Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Whether President-elect Donald Trump will ever get sentenced on his now six-month-old hush-money conviction could become clearer as early as Tuesday, when prosecutors are scheduled to announce — at least to the judge — how they wish to proceed with the case.
Since his decisive victory on Election Day, Trump's November 26 sentencing date has remained on hold indefinitely.
His lawyers have asked that the case be dismissed in the interest of justice, arguing it hampers Trump's constitutionally protected freedom to govern.
If prosecutors agree with the defense on Tuesday, and say they wish to throw in the towel, the parties would present a united front to the trial judge, who could then vacate the verdict or dismiss the indictment in its entirety.
If prosecutors instead insist that the sentencing proceed, it will be up to the judge, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, to break the impasse, with just two months remaining until Trump's inauguration.
In a letter last week, Merchan set a 10 a.m. Tuesday deadline for prosecutors to file papers stating "your view of appropriate steps going forward." It's unclear when the filing will be made public.
Prosecutors have given scant sign of which way they are leaning.
In an email to the judge last week, one of the lead prosecutors, Matthew Colangelo, said, "these are unprecedented circumstances."
The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is weighing, on one hand, "the Office of the President," Colangelo wrote.
On the other hand, he wrote to the judge, is the competing interest of "a jury verdict of guilt following trial that has the presumption of regularity."
Under New York state case law, "the presumption of regularity" presumes that judicial proceedings are conducted properly and sets a high burden for defendants to prove otherwise.
Just how a pre-inaugural sentencing might impact Trump's second term is hard to gauge.
Trump faces anywhere from zero time in jail up to four years in prison on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush-money payment that silenced porn actress Stormy Daniels less than two weeks before the 2016 election.
However, a jail sentence is highly unlikely for a 78-year-old defendant who is a first-time offender with a non-violent conviction, former New York City judges have told Business Insider. Any sentence handed down in the next two months would also be very quickly "stayed" —meaning put on ice — for many years as Trump appeals, the judges said.
Trump's sentencing date had already been delayed twice.
The original July sentencing was canceled to allow the parties time to respond to the US Supreme Court's landmark decision granting presidents broad immunity from prosecution for official acts.
On that front, the judge is still weighing defense arguments that the case be tossed because prosecutors improperly relied on official-act evidence now banned by SCOTUS.
Trump's second sentencing date, in September, was abandoned after both sides agreed it was too close to the presidential election.
