MANHATTAN (CN) — Donald Trump wants to wait until after the presidential election in November to be sentenced for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
In a letter to the court posted Thursday on defense attorney Todd Blanche's website, Trump — the Republican presidential nominee for this year’s election — takes issue with his Sept. 18 sentencing date. He claims that the timing could unduly influence the election process since he would be sentenced after the start of early voting.
“By adjourning the sentencing until after that election … the court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” Trump claimed.
Trump’s sentencing was already delayed once. After he was convicted by a Manhattan jury at the end of May, Trump was initially due to be sentenced July 11. But following a bombshell ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on presidential immunity in July, Trump’s lawyers asked for the date to be pushed so they can argue for the conviction to be vacated on those new grounds.
New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan granted the request and settled on the September date. Now, Trump claims that even that date does not leave enough time to argue the issue fully.
In his letter, Trump said a sentencing shouldn’t be necessary at all, since he expects Merchan to vacate the ruling on presidential immunity grounds. (Experts are skeptical.)
Even so, the ex-president bemoaned that Merchan is set to rule on his presidential immunity claims just two days before his sentencing. He said that doesn’t allow him “adequate time to assess and pursue state and federal appellate options in response to any adverse ruling.”
“Setting aside naked election-interference objectives, there is no valid countervailing reason for the court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar,” Trump said. “There is no basis for continuing to rush.”
The letter is Trump’s latest effort to derail his hush-money case. Earlier this week, Merchan shot down Trump’s effort to get him recused. Trump cited the work of the judge’s daughter, a political campaign consultant for Democrats, as a conflict of interest for Merchan. It was the third such motion the judge has rejected since the start of the case.
Trump also feverishly tried to delay the start of the trial earlier this year, filing successive unsuccessful interim stay requests in a state appellate court the week before opening arguments in April.
Like those efforts, legal analyst Jeffrey Evan Gold believes this latest letter to be a longshot ask. Gold, a criminal defense attorney at the New Jersey-based Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, told Courthouse News on Thursday that Merchan is likely “fed up” with Trump’s constant delay efforts.
“The judge seems aggravated, and I would be too,” Gold said.
Still, given this case’s political polarization and the fact that Merchan has already delayed the sentencing once, Gold thinks it’s possible that Merchan could take steps to address Trump’s timing concerns.
One way he could do that, according to Gold, is to sentence Trump at the agreed-upon sentencing date, but agree not to implement the sentence until after the election.
“That way, he gets a sentence, but the implementation doesn’t happen so it doesn’t impede his ability to go to different states and do whatever he needs to do for the election,” Gold said.
Trump has continued his presidential campaign amid a barrage of legal battles around the country. He made history earlier this year when he became the first president, former or current, to be convicted of a crime.
A Manhattan jury found that Trump had violated state law by falsifying business records to cover up a hush-money scheme centered around his 2016 presidential election. The jury ruled that Trump directed his then-lawyer Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about a tryst with Trump ten years earlier.
Trump then forged company records to repay Cohen, falsely labeling invoices, leger entries and checks as payments for standard legal fees. Evidence presented at trial showed that Trump signed the scrutinized checks to Cohen from the Oval Office in 2017.
Trump continues to deny the charges, despite the verdict.
Follow @Uebey
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
Additional Reads
-
-
Five key House races to watch in November September 10, 2024
-
-
Presidential race remains tied before first debate September 9, 2024