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Trump Asks for Indefinite Delay for His Hush-Money Sentencing

Patricia Hurtado

30 August 2024 at 4:46 pm·2-min read

(Bloomberg) -- Donald Trump asked a New York judge to indefinitely delay sentencing in his criminal hush-money case to allow a US judge time to fully consider a request to move it to federal court.

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Trump’s bid comes as the former president’s lawyers asked US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, in Manhattan, to intervene in the state criminal case. Both requests are part of an effort to delay the sentencing until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.

If Trump’s lawyers successfully move the case to federal court, they said they would ask Hellerstein to overturn the former president’s May 30 conviction on 34 felony counts and dismiss the case on the grounds he’s protected by presidential immunity.

New York Justice Juan Merchan, who’s presiding over Trump’s criminal case, has said he’d rule by Sept. 16 on Trump’s argument that a landmark US Supreme Court opinion gives him broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions he took while president. Merchan has also set Trump’s sentencing for Sept. 18, if he rejects the immunity arguments.

But in a letter to the court Thursday, Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to “refrain” from deciding the immunity question until after Hellerstein rules. His lawyers also argued Merchan “may not sentence” Trump during the removal process.

“There is no good reason to sentence President Trump prior to Nov. 5, 2024, if there is to be a sentencing at all, or to drive the post-trial proceedings forward on a needlessly accelerated timeline,” Trump’s lawyers said.

Trump was convicted in May by a Manhattan state jury of falsifying business records to conceal a $130,000 payment to a porn star before the 2016 election.

This is the second time Trump’s lawyers have tried to move the criminal case to federal court. After Trump was indicted last year, Hellerstein rejected Trump’s argument that the hush-money indictment involved official duties.

Hellerstein said the “evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President — a cover-up of an embarrassing event.”

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment.

--With assistance from Erik Larson.

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