By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. President-elect Donald Trump asked a New York court on Tuesday to throw out his conviction on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star, and to dismiss the case before his scheduled Friday sentencing.
The request to a state appeals court marked a last-ditch effort by Trump to block a lower court ruling on Monday to proceed with the sentencing on Friday, 10 days before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration.
In Monday’s ruling, Justice Juan Merchan rejected a request from Trump’s lawyers to delay the sentencing while they appealed two of his previous rulings upholding the Manhattan jury’s May guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying records.
The judge wrote that Trump’s request for a delay was mostly “a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.”
In scheduling Trump’s sentencing for Friday, Merchan said he was not inclined to send Trump to jail. He said a sentence of unconditional discharge, effectively putting a judgment of guilt on his record without a fine or probation, would be the most practical approach given Trump’s looming inauguration.
Citing both presidential immunity and the demands of Trump’s impending inauguration, his lawyers on Monday morning said Merchan’s intention not to penalize Trump was “of no moment.”
“Presidential immunity violations cannot be ignored in favor of a rushed pre-inauguration sentencing,” the lawyers wrote in a court filing.
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump, who denies it. Trump, a Republican, defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in that election.
Trump has long argued that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, brought the case to harm his 2024 reelection campaign. Bragg has said that his office routinely brings felony falsification of business records charges.
The hush money case made Trump the first U.S. president – sitting or former – to be charged with and convicted of a crime.
Since the verdict, his lawyers have made two unsuccessful attempts to have the case tossed, which they now say they plan to appeal.
Merchan previously rejected their argument that the U.S. Supreme Court’s July finding in a separate criminal case against Trump that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts meant the hush money case must be dismissed. Merchan ruled that the hush money case concerned Trump’s personal conduct.
After Trump won reelection, his lawyers argued that having the case hang over him while president would impede his ability to govern. Merchan denied that bid, writing that overturning the jury’s verdict would be an affront to the rule of law.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York)
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