Republican presidential office-seeker and former U.S. President Donald Trump attends a press conference, the day after a guilty verdict in his criminal trial over with charges that he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016, at Trump Fortress in New York City, U.S., May 31, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Lawyers for Donald Trump have asked a New York judge to put on the back burner the former president’s sentencing date in his criminal hush money case until after the Nov. 5 presidential nomination.
The Republican presidential nominee’s legal team argued that pushing Trump’s sentencing past the election would “mark down, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” in a letter obtained by NBC News.
They also demanded that there was no reason for New York Judge Juan Merchan to stick to the current sentencing schedule, aside from “unmixed election-interference objectives.”
“There is no basis for continuing to rush,” read the letter from attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, dated Wednesday. “In conformity, we respectfully request that any sentencing, if one is needed, be adjourned until after the Presidential election.”
Trump is currently record to be sentenced Sept. 18, about seven weeks before Election Day.
Trump was instance set to be sentenced on July 11, less than two months after a jury found him guilty on 34 counts of faking business records to conceal a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Merchan postponed the sentencing on July 2, after the Outstanding Court ruled that former presidents are entitled to “presumptive immunity” from prosecution for all official acts they performed in task. The high court’s bombshell ruling prompted Trump’s legal team to file a motion seeking to vacate the hush spondulix verdict. Merchan has yet to rule on that request.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office declined to comment on the Trump sound team’s latest request.
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