Although the judge presiding over President-elect Donald Trump’s hush money case has already indicated he would not sentence the incoming president to prison time for his 34-count felony conviction, lawyers for Trump now want to nix the sentencing hearing while an appeal is underway.
Trump, who will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, is slated to face sentencing on Friday. When he is sentenced, he will formally be considered a convicted felon.
Trump’s attorneys, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, said they intend to formally file their appeal Monday and that they will contest two previous rulings from the judge that rejected bids to dismiss the case on immunity grounds.
In a request filed in New York on Sunday, the attorneys argued that the Constitution and protections already afforded to Trump under the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling last year mean there can be no sentencing while he actively appeals.
In a dig at Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, Blanche and Bove wrote Monday that the case should be dismissed and the sentencing immediately halted because the entire matter was “flawed from the very beginning, [and] centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial-liar attorney” eager to violate Trump’s due process rights.
When New York Judge Juan Merchan issued a ruling on Dec. 16 flatly rejecting Trump’s presidential immunity arguments as grounds for dismissal, he explained his reasoning: The evidence presented and used to convict Trump related “entirely to unofficial conduct,” and the Supreme Court had left the door open to prosecution for unofficial acts.
In May, a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up an alleged tryst he had with adult film actor Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trial evidence and testimony from Trump’s onetime fixer and attorney, Michael Cohen, demonstrated how Cohen helped coordinate the cover-up of a $130,000 payment for Daniels that was meant to keep the news from spilling out into the public.
Even after his conviction, Trump has continued to claim he is not guilty.
When Merchan refused to dismiss the case in December, he wrote that falsifying business records “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.”
In his order for Trump to appear at sentencing, the judge said Trump should be permitted to “avail himself of every available appeal,” but the sentencing hearing would move ahead nonetheless. The only “viable” course forward would be to issue a sentence under the terms of “unconditional discharge,” Merchan wrote.
This type of sentence, which imposes no fines or prison time, is rare, but when applied, it is typically because there is no practical punishment available.
Trump’s lawyers asked for a response from the judge by 2 p.m. on Monday. If there is none, his lawyers said they will file a request for an emergency appellate review.
In addition to vacating the sentencing hearing scheduled to take place this week, they have also asked that all further deadlines in the case be “fully and finally resolved.”
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Trump was meant to be sentenced in the criminal hush money case in July. That sentencing hearing was waylaid by Merchan multiple times. He postponed sentencing so the Supreme Court could consider his immunity arguments and then again because of demands from Trump’s presidential campaign.
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to request for comment.