Judge in Trump’s hush money case delays sentencing until after election
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(NEW YORK) — The judge in former President Donald Trump’s criminal hush money case has delayed his sentencing from Sept. 18 until Nov. 26 — after the presidential election.
The decision, issued in a court filing Friday, means Trump will not face consequences for falsifying business records related to a hush payment to Stormy Daniels before voters choose the next president.
Judge Juan Merchan also said he would now rule on Trump’s motion to set aside the verdict on Nov. 12.
Trump is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds of presidential immunity, after the Supreme Court ruled in blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
“The public’s confidence in the integrity of our judicial system demands a sentencing hearing that is entirely focused on the verdict of the jury and the weighing of aggravating and mitigating factors free from distraction or distortion,” Merchan wrote in his ruling Friday. “The members of this jury served diligently on this case, and their verdict must be respected and addressed in a manner that is not diluted by the enormity of the upcoming presidential election.”
Merchan appeared to arrive at the decision reluctantly, ruling that sentencing would be “adjourned to avoid any appearance — however unwarranted — that the proceeding has been affected by or seeks to affect the approaching Presidential election in which the Defendant is a candidate.”
Merchan’s opinion noted that any conflict was of Trump’s own making as the former president repeatedly sought to delay the proceedings.
“Notably, had Defendant been sentenced on July 11, 2024, as originally scheduled, there would of course have been no cause for delay,” the judge wrote.
Merchan also chided Trump for attempting to bolster his argument with “a litany of perceived and unsubstantiated grievances from previous filings that do not merit this Court’s attention.”
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
He has denied all wrongdoing and has said he will appeal the decision.
(WASHINGTON) — While Election Day is finally here, more than 83 million people have already cast their ballots.
Election Day was trending on the busy side, with roughly half of the 161.42 million registered voters still heading to the polls.
In Georgia, one of seven key swing states, long lines were forming outside polling stations, officials said, despite more than 4 million people in the Peach State having already voted.
In Fulton County, Georgia’s most populous county, which includes the city of Atlanta, nearly 30,000 people had cast their in-person ballots by 9:40 a.m. Tuesday, a little more than three-and-a-half hours after the polls opened at 7 a.m., said Nadine Williams, the Fulton County director of registration.
“All polling sites are secure with an active security presence,” said Williams, adding that the county had received five “non-credible” bomb threats Tuesday morning, two of which prompted the evacuation of voting locations for about 30 minutes each.
“Outside of these brief interruptions, Election Day has been quiet, with minimal issues reported and we remain prepared to address any misinformation or additional disruption to ensure a smooth experience for all voters today,” Williams said.
Of the 83 million voters nationwide who have already cast ballots, 45 million did so in person while 38 million mailed in ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. About 37.7% of the early votes were cast by registered Democrats while 35.9% of Republicans voted early, according to the lab.
In the 2020 presidential election, 66% of eligible voters cast ballots, the highest of any national election. President Joe Biden beat Trump 51.31% to 46.85%, according to the Federal Election Commission.
This election is expected to be even closer than 2020.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released Saturday showed Harris with an overall three-point advantage over Trump among likely voters nationwide, 49% to 46%.
Both Harris and Trump have spent the last week of the campaign barnstorming in battleground states, fighting tooth and nail for every last undecided vote. On Monday, the candidates engaged in a sprint to the finish line, holding multiple rallies in North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
In a sampling of nine states, including the battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, 54% of the early voters were women and 43.8% were men, according to the lab. The largest block of early voters, 39.4%, were 41- to-65-year-olds, while voters over 65 represented 34.5% of the early vote.
Younger voters — 26 to 40 years old — made up 17.5% of the early vote, while 8.7% of voters 18 to 25 cast early ballots, according to the lab.
Some states like North Carolina, another key swing state, have shattered records for early voting.
More than 4.4 million voters have cast early ballots in North Carolina, 4.2 million of them in person, according to the lab. The North Carolina Board of Elections said the number of early voters broke a record, surpassing the 3.6 million early votes cast in the 2020 election, officials said.
In the swing state of Pennsylvania, at least 1.8 million people voted early via mail-in ballots, according to the Florida Election Lab, which reported that 55.7% of the earlier voters were women and 32.8% were men.
Early voting in Georgia began on Oct. 15, and more than 3.7 million people voted in person, while another 265,648 cast mail-in ballots, according to the lab. A breakdown of the early voters showed 55.7% were women and 43.5% were men, according to the lab.
In other battleground states, Michigan saw 3.2 million voters casting mail-in ballots, 55% women and 44.9% men; 2.3 million cast early mail-in ballots in Arizona, 40.8% of whom are registered Republicans and 32% Democrats, according to the lab.
In Nevada, another swing state, a little over 1 million voters cast early ballots, including 543,271 who voted in person and 556,062 who sent in mail-in ballots, the lab reported. Of those who voted early in Nevada, 37.5% were Republican and 33.7% were Democrat, according to the lab.
And in the battleground state of Wisconsin, 1.5 million people voted early, including 949,157 who cast in-person ballots and 561,616 who cast mail-in ballots, the lab reported.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors on Tuesday announced criminal charges against an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general in connection with an alleged failed attempt to assassinate a New York-based Iranian journalist.
Ruhollah Bazghandi, who is based in Iran and beyond the reach of law enforcement, allegedly orchestrated the alleged 2022 plot to kill the journalist, prosecutors said.
The charges name Bazghandi and six other Iranian operatives who federal prosecutors said plotted to kill Masih Alinejad, a prolific journalist and human rights activist who has been critical of the Iranian government.
Since at least July 2022, the Bazghandi network sought to assassinate Alinejad, as directed by individuals in Iran, according to the indictment.
The indictment details how the network of operatives surveilled Alinejad and quotes them talking about her in July 2022.
“I’m close to the place now brother I’m getting even closer,” the indictment quotes one operative as saying.
In response, another said, according to the indictment, “OK my brother dear don’t let her out of your sight. Let’s not delay it my brother dear.”
The operative — Khalid Mehdiyev — was disrupted when he was arrested near the victim’s home on July 28, 2022, while in possession of the assault rifle, along with 66 rounds of ammunition, approximately $1,100 in cash, and a black ski mask, according to the indictment.
Alinejad reacted to the federal charges in a statement on social media Tuesday, saying, “I will not be deterred.”
“Thanks to law enforcement, I am alive to witness the Islamic Republic’s humiliation,” she said. “I am determined to echo the voices of millions of Iranians, especially women, who are facing the same killers within the country.”
She said the alleged assassination plot is a “stark reminder of the brutal lengths to which the Islamic regime will go to silence dissidents, even those far beyond Iran’s borders.”
Alinejad said she has moved 21 times between safe houses in the past three years, following an alleged Iranian plot to lure and kidnap her in 2021.
The FBI released a wanted poster for Bazghandi, who is being sought on charges including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.
“Today’s indictment exposes the full extent of Iran’s plot to silence an American journalist for criticizing the Iranian regime,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement on Tuesday. “The FBI’s investigation led to the disruption of this plot as one of the conspirators was allegedly on their way to murder the victim in New York. As these charges show, the FBI will work with our partners here and abroad to hold accountable those who target Americans.”
(NEW YORK CITY) — A wildfire raging on the border of New York and New Jersey exploded overnight to 5,000 acres, prompting officials on Monday to postpone one of the oldest Veterans Day Parades in the nation.
As firefighters battled the Jennings Creek Fire straddling the border between Orange County, New York, and Passaic County, New Jersey, organizers of the 80th annual West Milford, New York, Veterans Day Parade, announced the event will be delayed until Nov. 24, due to the ongoing emergency.
“I cannot in good conscience detract from all the hard work our firefighters, police officers, first responders, DPW personnel and our community leaders are currently facing in dealing with wildfires along the East Shore area,” Rudy Hass, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7198 in West Milford, said in a statement.
Hass said many firefighters battling the Jennings Creek Fire are military veterans.
“Right now we need to keep them in our thoughts as they spend many hours, day and night, doing all they can in order to protect our great communities in that area,” Hass said.
The blaze broke out Saturday and burned drought-parched wildland stretching from the West Milford in Passaic County, New Jersey, to the Sterling Forest State Park in New York’s Orange County, and on both the New York and New Jersey sides of Greenwood Lake, officials said.
Despite the first measurable rain in the area in more than a month, the fire grew from about 2,500 acres on Sunday to over 5,000 acres, or about 4.7 square miles, by Monday morning, according to the New York Forest Fire Service.
The fire has burned about 2,500 acres on the New York and New Jersey sides of the fire, a forest ranger for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said at a news conference Monday.
Firefighters made progress battling the fire Sunday night, increasing containment from 0% to 20%, officials said.
At least 25 structures remain threatened by the conflagration, including eight historic structures in New Jersey’s Long Pond Ironworks State Park, a historic 175-acre village where iron was produced during the Revolutionary War, officials said.
A New York State Parks and Recreation aid was killed on Saturday helping the battle the Jennings Creek Fire, officials said. The deceased parks employee was identified Sunday by the New York State Police as 18-year-old Dariel Vasquez.
The New York and New Jersey forest services have teamed up to fight the fire on both sides of the state line.
Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said numerous residents living near the fire have complied with voluntary evacuations.
“We had about 40 homes and residents that move out voluntarily, we really didn’t have to encourage them too much because they saw out their windows a major firestorm coming their way,” Neuhaus told ABC New York station WABC.
While Sunday’s light rainstorm was welcomed on the fire line, the precipitation did little to extinguish the fire, officials said. Overnight, about 0.25 inches of rain fell across the fire area.
“This provided an opportunity to rest several of the crews who have been working non-stop to contain this fire,” the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a social media post on Monday morning. “Today, crews are back on scene and will continue to improve containment lines and address area of concern.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Chief Bill Donnelly of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said at a news conference Sunday that it could take crews until the end of this week to extinguish the blaze.
The fire came amid blustery winds and drought conditions in New York and New Jersey, which before Sunday hadn’t seen any rain in more than a month, officials said.
Since Oct. 1, New Jersey firefighters have responded to 537 wildfires that have consumed 4,500 acres, including about 40 fires that ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Donnelly. Forest Ranger Jeremy Oldroyd, of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York fire crews have battled 60 wildfires since Oct. 1, and they have burned 2,100 acres.
At one point over the weekend, New Jersey firefighters were simultaneously battling at least six significant brush fires that ignited across the state, including a second large wildfire in Passaic County.
The “Cannonball 3” fire began on Friday afternoon near Passaic County’s Pompton Lake and grew to 181 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service announced Sunday afternoon that firefighters had achieved 100% containment on the fire.
Another wildfire in New Jersey — the Shotgun Fire — started Wednesday and burned 350 acres of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township before firefighters gained control of the blaze, officials said. Officials said the cause of the fire was arson.
Investigators concluded the fire began behind a berm at the Central Jersey Rifle & Pistol Club in Jackson, New Jersey, and was caused by magnesium shards of a “Dragon’s Breath” 12-gauge shotgun round, which ignited materials on the berm. Firing incendiary or tracer ammunition is illegal in New Jersey, authorities said.
Richard Shashaty, 37, of Brick Township, surrendered to the police on Saturday. He was charged with arson and violation of regulatory provisions relating to firearms, officials said Saturday.
