Donald Trump is making a last-ditch plea to the Supreme Court in an attempt to stop Judge Juan Merchan from sentencing him in the Stormy Daniels hush money case.
Trump’s team is demanding the high court stop Merchan from imposing a sentence on the president-elect after he was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in May.
They had successfully delayed the sentencing until after the November election, but it was rescheduled for Friday.
Merchan signaled that he might not impose jail time or even a fine – although that didn’t stop Trump from going after the judge in a rambling press conference.
‘We have a judge in New York as a very crooked judge, I’m under a gag order. I can’t even talk about aspects of the case that are the most vital aspects,’ Trump, 78, complained at Mar-a-Lago at an event.
His team, led by lawyer Todd Blanche, who was tapped for a top Justice Department post, says Trump should be spared sentencing based on the court’s monumental presidential immunity decision last summer.
The Supreme Court should immediately stop proceedings ‘to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,’ his team argues.
Blanche predicted the appeal will ultimately result in a dismissal of the case.
Donald Trump’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to grant an emergency stay that would stop him from being sentenced in New York on Friday
A New York jury convicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records in a trial that featured testimony by former Trump ‘fixer’ Michael Cohen and porn star Stormy Daniels, who claims she had a sexual affair with Trump. Trump denies the affair.
His pleading comes a day after an appeals court rejected Trump’s request to have Friday’s sentencing delayed.
Trump had also asked Merchan to delay sentencing pending his appeal.
Merchan said he would move forward anyway, and said his legal teams raised arguments were mostly ‘a repetition of the arguments he has raised numerous times in the past.’ He has said he won’t likely send Trump to prison, and may give him a conditional discharge.
However even that outcome would give Trump the permanent stain of being the first president to be a convicted felon when he is sworn in on January 20th.
Merchan determined last month that the evidence presented at the trial earlier this year was related ‘entirely to unofficial conduct’ and therefore did not amount to official actions as president.
Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts related to hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels
Justice Juan Merchan on Monday denied the incoming president’s motion to delay the case
Trump is taking his hush money case to the Supreme Court, which already gave him an important victory in its presidential immunity decision
Trump has yet to be sentenced after his May jury conviction in Manhattan
‘This Court concludes that if error occurred regarding the introduction of the challenged evidence, such error was harmless in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt,’ Merchan wrote.
The high court handed Trump a major victory this summer when it ruled 6-3 that presidents enjoy a form of immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office.
Trump’s team argued that the evidence included ‘official acts performed while he was in office as President of the United States.’ That includes his Oval Office meeting with Cohen and Trump signing some of the checks that constituted the $130,000 payment to Daniels.
According to Blanche, it also included official statements on his presidential Twitter account and statements to the press while in office.
