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MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York appellate judge on Tuesday refused to delay Donald Trump’s upcoming sentencing as the president-elect continues to fight for the dismissal of his entire Manhattan hush money case.
“After consideration of the papers submitted and the extensive oral argument, movant’s application for an interim stay is denied,” Associate Justice Ellen Gesmer of New York’s Appellate Division, First Department, wrote in a brief order Tuesday.
Trump pushed for an emergency hearing for an interim stay on the sentencing as he appeals a pair of recent rulings by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the hush money case. In one of the rulings, Merchan declined to vacate the conviction on presidential immunity grounds. In the other, he set the sentencing date to Friday — just 10 days before his presidential inauguration.
Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, whom Trump also tapped for a top spot in the Justice Department, appeared solo in front of Gesmer at Tuesday’s afternoon hearing, where he immediately faced friction from the judge when he suggested that presidential immunity should ice the proceedings.
“Do you have any support for the notion that presidential immunity extends to presidents-elect?” Gesmer asked.
Blanche replied, “There has never been any case like this before, so no.”
Prosecutors agreed that there was no precedent to address this issue, seeing that as an unequivocal win for their side.
“The claim is so baseless that there is no support for an automatic stay here,” prosecutor Steven Wu told the judge. “Defense counsel has not cited any case … that supports the idea that a president-elect has the same immunity as a sitting president.”
Wu told the court that there is a “compelling public interest” to see this case through and sentence Trump as planned.
He added that Merchan has already “bent over backwards” to accommodate Trump’s concerns, including by delaying the sentencing three prior times at the soon-to-be president’s request.
Gesmer appeared to agree.
“Justice Merchan would have been happy to hold that sentencing in July,” Gesmer quipped to Blanche, acknowledging that the only reason it is now being held so close to the inauguration is “because of a series of motions made by your client.”
The hearing took place just hours after Trump filed a lengthy petition in the mid-level New York appeals court Tuesday morning, where he lambasted Merchan’s two recent rulings. Both orders, Trump claimed, are erroneous and “threaten the institution of the presidency.”
“These errors violate the doctrine of presidential immunity and completely undermine the erroneous jury verdict in this meritless, politically motivated case that violated President Trump’s fundamental due process rights,” the president-elect argues.
The filing came in the form of an Article 78 petition, which is effectively a civil action against New York State agencies and judges used to fight their orders.
In this case, Trump is suing Merchan over his rulings with the hope to once more ice his hush money sentencing.
Gesmer’s ruling does not quash Trump’s appeal, only his effort to delay the sentencing while the appeal plays out. A full appellate panel will hear Trump’s arguments on the merits of that appeal at a later date.
Trump had hoped that this alone would prompt Merchan to freeze his sentencing, arguing over the weekend that his criminal proceedings should be “automatically stayed” with the promise to file an appeal. But Merchan disagreed, calling Trump’s new arguments “for the most part, a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past,” in a Monday decision.
The judge’s ruling once again cemented a Manhattan jury’s 2024 verdict that found Trump guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, crimes related to hush money he paid to a porn star during his 2016 presidential campaign.
Despite jail time being on the table for those offenses, Merchan indicated that he would only seek unconditional discharge — a sentence that would preserve the jury’s verdict, but prevent Trump from having to serve any punishment so he can focus on his presidency.
Trump will attend his sentencing remotely, thanks to an exception Merchan ordered to address the president-elect’s “concerns regarding the mental and physical demands during this transition period.”
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