Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers asked the judge overseeing his criminal cases in New York to delay his sentencing until after the presidential election in November, arguing that a delay is necessary to resolve pending legal challenges to his conviction.
In one letter to Attorney General Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the case, Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove noted that the current date for the Sept. 18 ruling would come after early voting has already begun.
“The sentencing is currently scheduled to take place after the opening of early voting in the presidential election,” Blanche and Bove wrote. “By deferring judgment until after that election . . . the Court would reduce, although not eliminate, questions about the integrity of any future proceedings.”
Trump was convicted by a unanimous jury on 34 cases of falsification of business records in May. Prosecutors had alleged he orchestrated a scheme while president to hide kickbacks to a lawyer who wired a “hush money” payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels days before the 2016 presidential election to keep voters from learning about allegations of an extramarital sex meeting. Trump denied the meeting and pleaded guilty.
Trump has sought to overturn the conviction, citing a recent Supreme Court ruling on “presidential immunity.” His lawyers argued that delaying the ruling would give them more time to plan to appeal a denial of their attempt to overturn the case. The judge has said he will rule on that motion on Sept. 6
“There is no valid countervailing reason for the court to keep the current date of the ruling on the calendar. There is no basis for continuing to rush it,” they wrote, arguing that keeping the date would serve “purposes of bare election interference.”
A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment.