Trump demands dismissal of hush money case after ducking sentencing

MANHATTAN (CN) — President-elect Donald Trump has officially moved for the dismissal of his Manhattan hush money case, telling a New York judge that his status as the president-elect makes him immune from prosecution.

In a lengthy, sweeping filing docketed Monday but made publicly available Tuesday, Trump demanded that a jury’s guilty verdict against him be vacated.

“Following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 presidential election, presidential immunity is an unavoidable ‘legal impediment’ to further proceedings in this case,” Trump’s attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote. “The sitting president may not be subject to any phase of a criminal proceeding as a defendant.”

Failure to dismiss the case would create “unconstitutional and unacceptable diversions and distractions from President Trump’s efforts to lead the nation,” they continued.

It’s an argument Trump floated last month, when he asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to stay the proceedings on the back of his election victory. He assured Merchan that the dismissal of the case “will happen as justice takes its course.”

Merchan agreed and indefinitely delayed Trump’s Nov. 26 sentencing, with which Trump faced jail time. Monday’s motion sets the stage for Manhattan prosecutors to duke out this unprecedented issue of presidential immunity with Trump’s legal team.

Trump’s new motion spanned far wider than just immunity, however. He outlined a number of issues he took with the trial, including supposed “false testimony” from a key witness and a renewed objection about the role of Merchan’s daughter as a Democratic political strategist.

“Based on public disclosures relating to the 2024 presidential election, clients of Authentic — where your honor’s daughter is a senior executive and partner — actively advocated against President Trump and solicited political contributions based on DANY’s prosecution while your honor presided over it,” Bove and Blanche wrote.

The president-elect called the district attorney’s evidence “weak” and claimed that the conduct he was accused of caused no material harm to anybody. He added that his “extraordinary service” to New York City and his contributions that are “too numerous to count” warrant dismissal in their own right.

Trump also lambasted the suggestion from prosecutors that they delay his sentencing until after he completes his four-year term.

“With respect to presidential immunity, it would be egregious and unlawful for this court to hold the prospect of a 2029 sentencing over President Trump’s head while he continues his service to this country,” his attorneys wrote.

Perhaps most striking was Trump’s reference to President Joe Biden’s recent pardon of his son Hunter for federal tax and gun crimes.

“Yesterday, in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted’ and ‘treated differently,’” Bove and Blanche argued in the motion.

Those comments, they say, are an “extraordinary condemnation of President Biden’s own DOJ,” which Trump claims colluded with the Manhattan District Attorney to prosecute him in this case.

Prosecutors have until Dec. 9 to respond to Trump’s motion. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg previously indicated thathis office will continue to fight to hold Trump accountable, even after his presidential victory.

The same can’t be said for the prosecutors of Trump’s federal cases. The Department of Justice, which has a rule prohibiting the prosecution of sitting presidents, startedwinding down its indictments against Trump shortly after his election win.

Trump is the first president to face felony charges. A Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, crimes that were part of a broader scheme by Trump to nullify bad press related to his 2016 presidential campaign.

During a six-week trial, prosecutors presented evidence outlining Trump’s illegal and tireless efforts to thwart scandalous rumors of his adulterous behavior. They argued that Trump conspired to pay off Stormy Daniels — a former adult film star who claims to have had sex with Trump in 2006 — to keep her from telling the media about the tryst and interfering with his bid for the White House.

Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen testified that Trump ordered him to pay Daniels $130,000 to keep her quiet. The jury found that Trump later falsified business records to repay Cohen and keep the scheme under wraps.

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