Lawyers for Donald Trump said in a letter to the judge hearing the former president’s hush-money case that they want him to delay sentencing and overturn the conviction, following the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity on Monday.
The lawyers said they plan to brief New York State Judge Juan Merchan on the relevance of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, arguing that the decision confirmed that the Manhattan district attorney should not have introduced evidence at the trial about Trump’s official acts as president.
Trump’s lawyers are seeking to overturn his conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying corporate records and delay next week’s sentencing, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stemmed from a hush-money payment to his former lawyer Michael Cohen made into an adult movie star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign.
News of the attorneys’ plans to file the motion was first reported by The New York Times.
Trump’s lawyers pointed to an element of the Supreme Court opinion that limits the evidence that can be used at trial. Trump is expected to be sentenced in 10 days.
Many of the actions used as evidence in the hush-money trial occurred before Trump took office in 2017. The events that occurred after he took office involved checks he signed from his personal account while president and documents prepared by his company. Prosecutors also detailed a meeting Trump had with Cohen at the White House.
The Public Prosecution Service did not want to comment on Monday evening.
The Supreme Court on Monday ruled 6-3 along ideological lines to reject Trump’s broad claim of immunity in his federal election interference case. It does not dismiss charges related to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, but some actions closely related to his core duties as president are off-limits to prosecutors in the special counsel’s office in that case.
The immunity ruling is expected to delay the case further, making it almost certain the trial will not begin before Election Day.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
