In an emergency court filing Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump requested the U.S. Supreme Court step in and pause Friday's sentencing in his New York hush money case. This comes just one day after the New York Appeals Court denied the same request.
In the Supreme Court filing, Trump's lawyers stated the pause was necessary to “prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the presidency and the operations of the federal government.”
Trump was convicted in May of last year on 34 counts of falsifying business records over hush money payments made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2016 ahead of the election.
Trump’s team has long argued the case should be thrown out entirely due to the Supreme Court’s July ruling stating former presidents have immunity for official acts.
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Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump’s hush money trial, found Trump’s actions qualify as personal business.
Criminal defense attorney Dwane Cates believes presidential immunity does apply in Trump’s case because some evidence is from his time in the White House.
“Part of their ruling was you can't use things that he did while he was president against him, and they used a bunch of stuff against him that probably shouldn't have come in,” said Cates. “The Supreme Court may feel a need to put an end to all this so we can wipe the slate clean and move forward.”
The Supreme Court has asked New York prosecutors to respond by Thursday morning.
A pause does not necessarily mean sentencing would hold until after Trump’s term is over.
“We're in rare legal ground here,” said Cates. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. So, nobody can really predict what way it's going to go.”
