Prosecutors in New York are urging the judge hearing Donald Trump’s hush money case to reject his latest attempt to move the case to federal court, delaying the progress of the historic criminal trial.
Lawyers for the former president filed a motion in federal court last week to move the state charges to federal court. A federal judge rejected a similar effort last year, but Trump’s lawyers argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity in a separate criminal case against Trump strengthened their position and that a judge should halt the Sept. 18 sentencing while he considers the issue.
They also want the state judge handling the criminal case, Juan Merchan, to halt proceedings while the federal judge reviews the case. They have said they need more time to present their arguments before the sentencing is announced.
In a letter to the judge last week, made public Tuesday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office urged Merchan to deny the request.
“Federal law is clear that proceedings in this Court need not be stayed pending the district court’s decision on defendant’s removal notice,” the attorney general’s letter said. It also added that “defendant’s concerns about the timing are a function of his own strategic and delaying litigation tactics: This second removal notice comes nearly ten months after defendant voluntarily abandoned his appeal of his first, unsuccessful attempt to have this case removed; three months after a jury found him guilty of thirty-four felony charges; and nearly two months after defendant asked this Court to consider his CPL § 330.30 motion for a new trial.”
Trump’s lawyers have also used the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling to convince Merchan to overturn the guilty verdict and dismiss the charges because they contain evidence of Trump’s “official acts” as president, which they argue are prohibited under the Supreme Court’s ruling.
The Public Prosecution Service opposes this argument and states that the impact of the ‘official acts’ referred to in the case was negligible.
Merchan is expected to rule on the matter on Sept. 16, two days before Trump’s sentencing. Trump’s lawyers have asked the judge to delay the proceedings until after the election so they have time to appeal if he rules against them.
Prosecutors said they would leave it up to the judge to extend the Sept. 18 date to give Trump “sufficient time” to appeal. However, they also urged him to issue a sentence “without unreasonable delay.” The judge has yet to rule on the request for a delay.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
