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Donald Trump is seeking to have the sentencing in his hush-money trial delayed until after the November election.
The former president’s attorneys argue in a letter that the current sentencing, scheduled for September 18, allows prosecutors to meet “election-interference objectives.”
In May, Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal reimbursements for a hush-money payment made to pornographic actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. The jury found Trump guilty of attempting to corruptly influence the outcome of the election by preventing Daniels’ story about having sex with him in 2006 from seeing the light of day.
Following the Supreme Court ruling that presidents have some immunity from prosecution for official acts carried out while in office, Trump’s attorneys argued that the verdict should be thrown out because evidence shared during the trial should have been shielded from the jury.
The sentencing was originally set for July 11, but Judge Juan Merchan delayed it following the Supreme Court’s ruling. Merchan said he would issue a ruling on the immunity claim two days before the September sentencing.
Trump’s legal team wrote in a letter sent to Merchan on Thursday that the “timing illustrates just how unreasonable it is to have the potential for only a single day between a decision on first-impression Presidential immunity issues and an unprecedented and unwarranted sentencing.”
The former president’s lawyers noted that the sentencing is currently set to begin after the start of early voting, arguing that delaying the sentencing until after the election would clear up “issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings.”
“Finally, setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the Court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “There is no basis for continuing to rush. Accordingly, we respectfully request that any sentencing, if one is needed, be adjourned until after the Presidential election.”
The request to delay sentencing comes just a day after the Trump team failed to kick Merchan off the case for a third time.
Merchan rejected the recusal motion in a late filing on Tuesday. The Trump legal team has argued that there is a conflict of interest as Merchan’s daughter is a political consultant working for the Democrats.
Despite the repeated rejection of those motions, Trump’s attorneys wrote in the letter on Thursday that a delay in the sentencing would “mitigate the asserted conflicts and appearances of impropriety.”
Trump’s lawyers have accused Merchan’s daughter of having a “longstanding relationship” with Vice President Kamala Harris, arguing that she has “obtained — and stands to obtain in the future — extensive financial, professional, and personal benefits from her relationship with Harris.”
New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics found last year that Merchan’s impartiality couldn’t “reasonably be questioned” because of his daughter’s career.
“This Court now reiterates for the third time that which should already be clear,” Merchan said in his response. “Innuendo and mischaracterizations do not a conflict create. Recusal is therefore not necessary, much less required.”
The judge added that the former president has “provided nothing new for this Court to consider,” saying that his lawyers have simply “repeated arguments that have already been denied by this and higher courts.”
“Defense Counsel’s reliance, and apparent citation to his own prior affirmation, rife with inaccuracies and unsubstantiated claims, is unavailing,” he wrote.
