Trump lawyers push to halt Jan. 10 hush money case sentencing

President-elect Trump’s legal team urged a judge to hold off on sentencing him on Jan. 10 in his New York criminal conviction ahead of his inauguration.

Judge Juan Merchan ruled last week that Trump’s sentencing could move forward this Friday despite his imminent return to the White House, rejecting the incoming president’s arguments that his election victory should mark an end to the case.

Trump’s attorneys told Merchan they are appealing his recent rulings upholding the jury’s guilty verdict and argued the judge must pause the case in the meantime.

“By virtue of President Trump’s filing of appellate proceedings raising his claims of Presidential immunity, all proceedings in this Court are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law,” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the new filing, which was made public Monday.

“In the alternative, even if such a stay were discretionary, the Court should grant such a stay. The Court should vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all further deadlines in the case until President Trump’s immunity appeals are fully and finally resolved, which should result in a dismissal of this case, which should have never been brought in the first place,” they continued.

They asked Merchan to notify the parties by 2 p.m. EST Monday whether he will cancel the sentencing and said they would be filing two appeals Monday in state court.

“The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung, who is set to become White House communications director, said in a statement.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) said prosecutors will file a response with the court Monday afternoon.

A New York jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with a hush money payment made to porn actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election so she would keep an alleged affair secret.

It is the only one of Trump’s criminal prosecutions to have reached trial. Since Trump’s election victory, his two federal cases have been withdrawn, while his Georgia charges remain in limbo after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) was disqualified from the case.

Trump’s sentencing in New York comes after the judge rejected two of his attempts to dismiss the case.

Trump long argued the jury saw official evidence — such as his social media posts while in office and testimony from White House aides — protected by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision carving out criminal immunity for former presidents.

Separately, his lawyers contended the case must be tossed in the wake of Trump’s election victory, insisting the immunity protections afforded to a sitting president should be extended to the transitional period while he is president-elect.

Merchan rejected both arguments, upholding Trump’s conviction and allowing the case to move ahead toward sentencing Friday.

“Given that Presidential immunity entails immunity from the burdens of criminal litigation such as trial and sentencing, forcing the President to defend a criminal case — especially at a sentencing hearing ten days before he is due to become President again — while his claim is adjudicated on appeal would ‘eviscerate’ immunity by ‘depriving immunity of its intended effect,’” Trump’s attorneys wrote in the new filing.

In scheduling Friday’s sentencing, Merchan rejected a proposal to delay the proceeding until after Trump’s White House term, calling that option “less desirable” and citing a need for finality in the case.

Updated at 11:04 a.m. EST

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