President-elect Donald Trump has petitioned the US Supreme Court to halt his sentencing in the New York hush-money case, scheduled for January 10. Trump’s lawyers argue he’s immune from prosecution as president-elect, citing potential harm to the presidency and federal government.
Donald Trump’s Supreme Court plea follows a New York appeals court’s rejection of his bid to delay Friday’s sentencing in a Manhattan state court. A New York trial court judge dismissed Trump’s request for an order that would hold off sentencing while he pleaded a decision last week upholding the verdict. It stays on schedule for Friday, though he can still ask other courts to intervene.
Judge Ellen Gesmer assigned a one-sentence verdict after an emergency hearing in the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court. She did not provide a reason for her decision and Trump did not attend the hearing.
Trump, fighting to evade the finality of his judgment before he returns to the White House, turned to the Appellate Division after the trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, on Monday refused his initial plea to halt the sentencing.
In the emergency trial, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche argued that Trump can’t be convicted because, as president-elect, he enjoys the same protection from criminal charges as a president.
Merchan had refused that argument in his verdict last week, and Steven Wu, arguing for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, said it rebelled against the deep-seated concept of one president at a time.
Asked Gesmer if he could quote anything to support his position, Blanche said, “There’s never been a case like this before.” But, referring to a longstanding Justice Department memorandum on presidential immunity, Blanche said, “Everybody agrees that President Trump is entitled to complete immunity from any criminal process” once he takes office.
Merchan has recommended he will not sentence Trump to detention time or any punishment, but Blanche said that isn’t binding and asked Gesmer, “If Judge Merchan were to sentence President Trump to 11 days in prison, would the court say, ‘OK, now we need to step in?”
Trump, whose sentencing will be held 10 days before his inauguration, is set to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes. If his sentencing doesn’t happen before his second term starts on Jan. 20, presidential protection would put it on hold until he leaves office.
Merchan has signaled that he is not able to punish Trump for his conviction on 34 felony counts of forging business records and will accommodate the transition by allowing him to present at sentencing by video, rather than in person at a Manhattan courthouse.
The Republican and his lawyers demanded that his sentencing should not progress further because the conviction and indictment should be dismissed. They have earlier recommended taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Merchan last Friday dismissed Trump’s request to cancel his conviction and dismiss the case because of his return to the White House, a verdict that Trump’s current status as president-elect does not make him eligible for the same protection from criminal proceedings as a sitting president.
Merchan wrote that the concern of justice would only be served by “bringing finality to this matter” through sentencing. He said granting Trump an unconditional discharge, a fine, or probation “appears to be the most viable solution.”
In his filing Tuesday, Blanche said that Merchan’s interpretation of presidential immunity was incorrect and that it should widen to a president-elect during “the complex, sensitive process of presidential transition.”
“It is unconstitutional to conduct a criminal sentencing of the president-elect during a presidential transition, and doing so threatens to disrupt that transition and undermine the incoming president’s ability to effectively function in the executive power of the United States,” Blanche wrote.
Trump’s lawyers are also challenging the judge’s earlier decision rejecting Trump’s argument that the case should be thrown out because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last July that gave presidents broad immunity from prosecution.
Manhattan prosecutors have postponed sentencing to proceed as scheduled, “given the strong public interest in prompt prosecution and the finality of criminal proceedings.”
Trump was accused last May on charges of engaging in an alleged scheme to hide a hush money payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the last weeks of Trump’s 2016 campaign to keep her from publicizing claims she’d had sex with him years earlier. He says that her story is fake and that he did nothing wrong.
