Friday Briefing: A Judge Weighs a Monumental Trump Decision

Justice Juan Merchan outside his office.Credit…Ahmed Gaber for The New York Times

🇺🇸 U.S. ELECTION

The presidential election is less than two months away. This is what we’re watching.

A judge weighs a monumental Trump decision

It’s been more than three months since a Manhattan jury convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony counts of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal. But after a Supreme Court ruling in July granted the former president some immunities, he has yet to be sentenced.

Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, already delayed Trump’s sentencing once, shortly after the ruling. He now faces a decision that could alter American politics for years to come: whether to sentence Trump as planned on Sept. 18 or wait until after Election Day on Nov. 5, as Trump requested.

If Justice Merchan postpones the sentencing, the American people will vote without knowing whether Trump will spend time behind bars. If not, Trump will undoubtedly accuse him of trying to tip the election toward his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.

Here’s what else to know:

• A federal judge said she would not let Trump’s campaign affect the schedule of the criminal case in which he stands accused of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

• Trump called for the creation of an efficiency commission to audit the government. He said Elon Musk would lead it. Later, he claimed that Israel “would no longer exist” if Harris won.

• From Opinion: The historian Allan Lichtman has a near-perfect track record of predicting who will win presidential elections. Watch the video.

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