Trump to judge: Dismissal of hush money case ‘will happen’

MANHATTAN (CN) — Moving forward with the hush money case of President-elect Donald Trump would “interfere” with his ability to govern and warrants the “immediate dismissal” of the case, Trump argued in a letter to a New York judge.

Trump assured New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan that setting aside the guilty verdict in his Manhattan criminal case is “mandated by the law and will happen as justice takes its course.”

“Immediate dismissal of this case is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interests of justice, in order to facilitate the orderly transition of executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 presidential election,” Trump’s defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in a two-page letter dated Tuesday but docketed Wednesday.

Trump previewed his motion to dismiss the historic case, which ended in a guilty verdict on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. He claims his impending return to the White House makes him immune from being sentenced for those crimes; his election win has already spelled the end of the federal criminal cases against him.

“DOJ is reportedly preparing to dismiss the federal cases against President Trump, and will report its final decision to federal courts on Dec. 2, 2024. As in those cases, dismissal is necessary here,” Blanche and Bove wrote.

“Just as a sitting president is completely immune from any criminal process, so too is President Trump as president-elect,” they added.

But Manhattan prosecutors on Tuesday said that they’re going to continue fighting to hold him accountable — even if they have to wait for Trump to complete his term to make it happen.

“The people deeply respect the Office of the President, and are mindful of the demands and obligations of the presidency, and acknowledge that defendant’s inauguration will raise unprecedented legal questions,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote in a letter. “We also deeply respect the fundamental role of the jury in our constitutional system.”

Trump’s presidential win killed his federal cases since the Department of Justice policy forbids prosecuting sitting presidents. The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has no such rule.

Still, Bragg finds himself faced with unprecedented legal questions as he looks to make the charges stick with Trump in office. He argued Tuesday that no case law suggests an incoming president is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution that occurred when he was not in the White House.

Blanche and Bove lamented Bragg’s unwillingness to dismiss the case. “As DA Bragg engages in his own election campaign, DANY appears to not yet be ready to dismiss this politically-motivated and fatally flawed case,” they wrote in the letter to the judge.

Retired New York Judge George Grasso observed the entirety of Trump’s six-week trial from the gallery. He said Merchan has a “Rubik’s Cube problem” to solve as this case proceeds.

“Judge Merchan is tasked with making a decision for the ages,” Grasso told Courthouse News on Wednesday. “Do I think he’s mandated to dismiss the case? No, I don’t think it’s a mandatory thing that he has to do immediately.”

But Grasso panned as “ridiculous” the notion that prosecutors should wait until Trump’s presidency is over in 2029 to finally sentence him.

Grasso said one step Merchan could take is to impose a sentence of unconditional discharge, so that Trump could officially be convicted without a punishment that interferes with his presidency.

“Beyond that, what are you going to do, put an incoming president on probation?” Grasso said. “Is he going to report to his probation officer? I mean, he’s the president.”

A Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty of orchestrating an illegal scheme that prosecutors described as Trump working to combat bad press related to his 2016 presidential campaign by paying hush money to an adult film star with whom he cheated on his wife a decade earlier.

He was scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26, but his presidential victory and subsequent motion practice has made that increasingly unlikely. Trump is the first president in U.S. history to be charged with and found guilty of a felony.

Trump has promised Blanche and Bove, his lead defense attorneys in this case, high-ranking positions in his Department of Justice.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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