Attorneys for Donald Trump are seeking to stop his sentencing from going ahead Friday while he appeals a pair of rulings upholding his historic criminal conviction for the 2016 Stormy Daniels hush money scheme.
Late Sunday – just two days after Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan denied Trump’s requests to throw out the case and guilty verdicts against him in light of his election win – the president-elect’s lawyers notified the judge they would appeal his rulings and said he should “immediately vacate” the sentencing set for Friday at 9:30 a.m.
Merchan on Jan. 3 flatly rejected Trump’s position that he was in any way protected from criminal prosecution based on the recent Supreme Court’ ruling on presidential immunity and declined to throw out the guilty verdict based on his election win.
The judge, instead, said Trump must appear in person or virtually for his sentencing on Friday to bring closure to the case and uphold the nation’s confidence in the rule of law. He said he would impose a sentence of an unconditional discharge, which means Trump will not be subjected to jail time, probation, fines or any other form of punishment.
In court papers made public Monday, Trump’s lawyers said their impending appeal to a mid-level New York appellate court should automatically halt the proceedings from going forward. In the alternative, they said Merchan himself should grant an immediate pause.
“[The] court should not continue to act while its very power to act in the first place is under appellate consideration,” Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote.
“[T]here is no legal basis to rush ahead to sentencing rather than impose a stay, other than DANY’s preference to get this done prior to President Trump’s inauguration …. so that DA Bragg can tell voters in his upcoming election that he completed the case,” they later wrote.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung, in a statement Monday, said, “President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt. The Supreme Court’s historic decision on Immunity, the state constitution of New York, and other established legal precedent mandate that this meritless hoax be immediately dismissed.”
The Manhattan DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Merchan’s denials on Friday set up Trump to take office as the first felon to serve as U.S. president. A jury on May 30 found him guilty of falsifying business records in 2017 relating to his reimbursement to Michael Cohen for paying off porn star Stormy Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 election.
Trial evidence showed that the payoff was one of at least three made to suppress unflattering information about his past from voters in 2016. The charges carry up to four years in prison.
Trump decried the case and officials involved in a string of Truth Social posts over the weekend, claiming, “I never falsified business records. It is a fake, made up charge by a corrupt judge who is just doing the work of the Biden/Harris Injustice Department, an attack on their political opponent, ME! He created a case where there was none.”
