George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley on Friday said that Judge Juan Merchan’s decision to delay former President Donald Trump’s sentencing could be an effort to avoid boosting his campaign.

Merchan had scheduled Trump’s sentencing for Sept. 18, but on Friday, he postponed the date to Nov. 26 “if necessary,” according to his order. Turley, on “America Reports,” claimed that Merchan’s rulings against Trump during his case were advantageous to his reelection bid, suggesting that maintaining the September sentencing date would have further intensified support for the former president.

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“Any sentencing that Merchan would have come down with, I think, would have not been particularly welcome by most of the public. It would have reminded them of this campaign against the former president,” Turley said. “So in some ways I think the Harris campaign is probably celebrating that they won’t have that attention on the Manhattan case.”

Merchan noted in his order that he was delaying the sentence “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.” The judge’s rulings during Trump’s business records trial tended to appear favorable to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg while impeding the former president’s defense as Merchan granted many of the prosecution’s requests while denying the defense’s requests.

“I was not one of those that was piling on Merchan, but I have to say, after sitting in his courtroom, I was very surprised in what I thought was a one-sided approach to that trial … There was, in my view, a lack of balance there. We have not heard this type of language from Merchan,” the law professor added. “He refused to do things during the trial that could have accommodated the environment in which the trial was occurring, including a gag order that I think was excessive.”

“And the irony, of course, was that the former president’s polls went up when he was gagged, partially, I think, because people saw the unfairness, partially because he sort of stayed on script,” Turley continued. “That may have weighed in all of this. Merchan actually witnessed how his conduct at the trial, the trial itself, worked in Trump’s favor. That would have been nothing in comparison to what would have happened if he sentenced Trump to home confinement or to jail. I think Merchan was aware of that.”

A Manhattan jury convicted Trump in May on 34 counts for falsifying business records related to reimbursing his then-attorney Michael Cohen for a nondisclosure agreement with porn star Stormy Daniels. The former president’s sentencing initially was set for July 11, but Merchan postponed it after the Supreme Court’s July 1 presidential immunity ruling.​_

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky said on Friday that Merchan delaying the sentencing again may “signal” his plan to imprison Trump following the November election.

Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America