Former President Donald Trump is seeking to delay sentencing in his New York bribery case by again asking a New York federal court to take up the case in light of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.
In a 60-page brief filed Thursday, Trump’s lawyers urged the court to reconsider its argument to move the case from state to federal court before the former president’s sentencing on Sept. 18.
“The ongoing proceedings will continue to cause direct and irreparable harm to President Trump – the leading candidate in the 2024 presidential election – and to voters far beyond Manhattan,” defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove wrote in the filing.
In May, Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a 2016 payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to improve his chances of winning the 2016 presidential election. The former president has said he will appeal the ruling.
It is unclear whether the court will consider Trump’s new motion, since U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected Trump’s initial attempt to have the case dismissed in July 2023, when the former president argued that the case focused on his official acts as president.
“The money paid to an adult film star is not related to the official acts of a president. It does not in any way reflect the color of the president’s official duties,” Hellerstein wrote in that decision.
Trump’s lawyers now argue that several Supreme Court decisions this year — including the court’s rulings on presidential immunity and deference to Chevron — “add strength” to Trump’s argument for impeachment and immunity.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Desert Diamond Arena on August 23, 2024, in Glendale, Arizona.
Rebecca Noble/Getty Images
“The groundbreaking questions of presidential immunity arising from Trump v. United States alone provide a sufficient basis to grant this impeachment request,” the filing said Thursday.
Trump’s lawyers made familiar arguments about the type of “evidence of official acts” that they say tainted the former president’s trial in New York, including testimony from former White House communications director Hope Hicks and the use of Trump’s tweets while president as evidence. Defense lawyers also repeated previously unsuccessful arguments about the alleged bias of the judge overseeing the case.
“Post-trial dismissal is necessary in these circumstances to provide President Trump with an impartial forum, free from local hostility, in which he can seek redress for these constitutional violations,” the filing states.
Defense attorneys have repeatedly mentioned the timing of Trump’s sentencing throughout their case and have warned of the impact of Trump’s potential imprisonment, though most legal experts believe it is unlikely that Trump will serve any sentence before the election.
“The impending election cannot be re-done. The harm done to the presidency by these abusive prosecutions, which has yet to be resolved, will negatively impact the functioning of the federal government for generations,” the filing states.
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment on the case.
