President-elect Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to overturn Friday’s ruling in the New York illicit money case.
Trump’s lawyers turned to the nation’s highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to delay the ruling by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial and conviction last May on 34 criminal counts of falsifying business records. Trump denied any wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court requested a response from the plaintiffs by Thursday morning.
Trump’s team sought an immediate halt to the planned punishment, saying it would wrongly restrict him as he prepares to take office. While Merchan indicated he would not impose jail time, fines or probation, Trump’s lawyers said a felony conviction would still have intolerable side effects.
They said sentencing should be postponed while the conviction is appealed “to prevent gross injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
The emergency request comes from lawyers John Sawyer, Trump’s pick for solicitor general, who represents the government before the Supreme Court, and Todd Blanche, who is set to become the No. 2 official in the Justice Department.
They also pointed to a Supreme Court ruling that gives Trump and other presidents broad immunity from prosecution for their actions while in office, saying it supports their argument that his conviction in New York should be overturned.
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Their filing said the New York court “lacks the authority to impose sentence on President Trump — or to conduct any other criminal proceedings against him — until his underlying appeal raising substantive claims of presidential immunity is resolved, including through review in this court if necessary.”
The spokesman for the Republican president-elect, Stephen Cheung, called in a statement to drop the case. Meanwhile, Trump filed an emergency appeal with the New York Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said it would respond in court papers.
Trump’s convictions stemmed from what prosecutors said was an attempt to cover up a $130,000 bribe payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 presidential election.
Daniels claims she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, but he denies this.
The Supreme Court’s opinion on immunity came in a separate case against Trump related to election interference, but Trump’s lawyers say that means some of the evidence used against him in his hush money trial should have been protected by presidential immunity. This includes testimony from some White House aides and social media posts while he was in office.
Merchan disagreed, finding that these works qualified as personal work. The Supreme Court’s immunity decision largely concerned official acts undertaken by presidents while in office.
—Associated Press writer Michael R. Sisak in New York.
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