Donald Trump wants to block his Jan. 10 sentencing in the hush money case as he appeals Judge Juan Merchan’s rulings rejecting his attempts to overturn his New York state guilty verdicts for falsifying business records.
“Due to the fact that further criminal proceedings are automatically stayed by operation of federal constitutional law, the Court will lack authority to proceed with sentencing, must therefore immediately vacate the sentencing hearing scheduled for January 10, 2025, and suspend all proceedings in the case until the conclusion of President Trump’s appeal on Presidential immunity,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing dated Sunday and made public Monday.
On Friday, Merchan rejected Trump’s latest motion to dismiss and set sentencing for Jan. 10, noting that he didn’t intend to sentence Trump to incarceration.
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The new defense filing is a notice that Trump is appealing recent rulings by Merchan that rejected Trump’s attempt to use presidential immunity to dismiss the case or overturn the guilty verdicts reached by a jury against him last year. Following those May verdicts on all 34 counts charged, the Supreme Court’s July immunity ruling in the federal election interference case led Trump to argue that its reasoning should lead to overturning the state verdicts and dismissing the case.
Citing the immunity ruling in this latest filing, Trump’s lawyers wrote that initiating these appeals automatically pauses further proceedings. If they’re correct about that, then Trump will not likely be sentenced before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20. At any rate, the filing itself calls into question whether Trump will be sentenced Friday, but we will see what Merchan does and what further appellate steps Trump’s lawyers take if the judge seeks to move forward with the sentencing despite this latest filing.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
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