President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge Monday to pause this week’s sentencing in his “hush money” case — but the jurist refused.
The lawyers demanded that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan freeze Friday’s sentencing as they ask a state appeals court to reverse rulings keeping intact Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies for concealing a payoff that hid a sex scandal before the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, argued in Monday’s court filing that their planned appeal to the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court triggers what’s known as an automatic stay, or pause, in the proceedings.
But Merchan said later Monday that he was rejecting their bid for a pause.
The judge last week had set the president-elect’s sentencing date for Jan. 10 — 10 days before Inauguration Day — rejecting Trump’s previous claim to nix the verdict because of “presidential immunity.”
President-elect Donald Trump delivers remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, December 16, 2024. REUTERS
The judge wrote that “the most viable solution” would be sentencing Trump to what’s known as an unconditional discharge — meaning no jail time, fines or probation — before he heads back to the White House.
“Only by bringing finality to this matter” will the interest of justice be served, Merchan said in the Jan. 3. decision.
Merchan gave Trump the option of appearing at Manhattan Supreme Court on Friday in person or through a remote video feed, after acknowledging the demanding task of preparing for his second term.
Prosecutors revealed Monday that they expect Trump to appear at the sentencing virtually rather than in person.
Trump will have the chance to make a statement. His lawyers will be able to appeal the verdict afterward, as his team has vowed to do.
But the situation apparently means that Trump, 78, will be a convicted felon when he takes office on Jan. 20.
Manhattan jurors convicted Trump in May of fudging business records to cover up a $130,000 payout from his former fixer, Michael Cohen, to porn star Stormy Daniels, meant to silence her story about having sex in 2006 with the married real-estate mogul.
Trump’s attorneys said they’ll be challenging Merchan’s decision upholding the verdict, and the judge’s December ruling swatting away Trump’s claim that his trial was “tainted” by evidence jurors heard from his first White House term — acts his lawyers claimed fell under the US Supreme Court’s definition of “presidential immunity.”
In a pair of rulings in recent weeks, Merchan rejected Trump’s bid to throw out the verdict and dismiss the indictment on presidential immunity grounds and because of his impending return to the White House. APProsecutors argued that the high court’s bombshell July 2024 ruling should not apply to the case because covering up a porn star payoff from the Oval Office did not qualify as one of a president’s “official acts.”
Trump, a Republican, has called the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, a “politically motivated” bid to remove him from the campaign trail.
“Today, President Trump’s legal team moved to stop the unlawful sentencing in the Manhattan D.A.’s Witch Hunt,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement Monday.
“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 judge’s ruling Monday afternoon came after Bragg’s office argued in its own court filing that Trump would “suffer no prejudice” from Friday’s proceeding, citing the judge’s plan to give him the most lenient possible sentence.
With Post wires
