Lawyers for Donald Trump are asking a New York appeals court judge for an emergency order halting the president-elect’s scheduled sentencing Friday on criminal charges in the hush money case.
The attorneys filed their petition for an emergency stay at the state Appellate Division, a mid-level appeals court.
The petition says the appeals court needs to grant “an immediate stay of any further criminal proceedings” in the trial court to “prevent ongoing violations of the constitutional rights of President Trump and a threatened disruption of the Presidential transition, a process that directly concerns the United States of America’s national security and vital interests.”
They contend that Trump is already protected by presidential immunity so he can’t be sentenced, and that his conviction in May of last year should be thrown out on other presidential immunity grounds.
Judge Juan Merchan postponed Trump’s scheduled sentencing in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling setting a new standard for presidential immunity that month.
Merchan then found in a ruling last month that Trump doesn’t have immunity until he’s sworn in as president. In a separate order last week, the judge directed Trump’s sentencing on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to take place on Friday morning, and said he plans on giving him an unconditional discharge. That means the conviction would stand, but he would not be subjected to any punishment.
Merchan rejected Trump’s request for a stay on Monday.
Prosecutors from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in a court filing Monday that there’s no reason to delay the sentencing any longer.
The DA’s office also contended that now is “the least burdensome time” for Trump to be sentenced.
As president-elect he “has no viable claim of presidential immunity from ordinary criminal process” and “is not yet engaged in any official presidential functions that would be disrupted by the sentencing,” they wrote.
Trump was convicted in May of falsifying records related to hush money that his then-attorney Michael Cohen paid adult film star Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 presidential election. Daniels testified she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, a claim he has denied.