In May 2024, a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial.
The charges are related in part to payments made to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels claimed she was paid hush money to keep quiet about an affair with Trump, and Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to criminal charges and served jail time for making the payments. Trump has denied allegations of the affair.
Now, weeks after Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, some people online are claiming the New York hush money case has been dismissed and all charges against the president-elect have been dropped.
“Trump’s NYC Stormy Daniels case has been DISMISSED in court. Means Liberals can’t call him convicted felon anymore,” one person wrote on Threads.
THE QUESTION
Did a judge dismiss Donald Trump’s hush money case?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, a judge did not dismiss Donald Trump’s hush money case. Trump’s sentencing in the case was postponed indefinitely and his legal team is allowed to file a motion for dismissal.
WHAT WE FOUND
Claims that a judge dismissed Donald Trump’s hush money case are false. Instead, a New York judge indefinitely postponed Trump’s sentencing and allowed his legal team to file a motion to dismiss the case.
In a one-page order dated Nov. 22, 2024, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted an application for a “stay of sentencing” in the case and ordered that the original Nov. 26 sentencing date be canceled.
A “stay” refers to a court’s action to stop a legal proceeding that’s usually temporary, Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute explains. Merchan did not set a new sentencing date in the case.
In the same order, Merchan also allowed Trump’s attorneys to file a motion to dismiss the case.
But that doesn’t mean the case has already been dismissed or the charges have been dropped, as some people are claiming online. Merchan still has to consider the arguments for throwing out the case from both Trump’s legal team and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
In his order, Merchan gave Trump’s lawyers a Dec. 2 deadline to file their arguments in support of throwing out the charges. Bragg’s response is due on Dec. 9.
Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove said in a letter to Merchan dated Nov. 19 that the case should be dismissed immediately.
“Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect,” Blanche and Bove wrote in the letter.
This comes after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official acts they take while in office.
In a Nov. 19 letter to Merchan, Bragg said he plans to oppose efforts to dismiss Trump’s hush money case and criminal conviction. But Bragg did suggest that proceedings in the case could be postponed until Trump is out of office.
Bragg’s office declined to comment on Merchan’s Nov. 22 ruling, the Associated Press reported. Trump spokesperson and incoming White House communications director Steven Cheung hailed it as “a decisive win” for Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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